Second Chance
by nD kS nW
Summary: What if everything had been different after Liz' wedding? What if Rory still wanted Jess? LITERATI. Java-Junkie. Rory never sleeps with Dean. No Logan. One year, wow. Luke and Lorelei. What's next for eveyone's favorite couple? COMPLETE.
1. The artful Dodger

AU: Ok, hey guys, this is a GG fic. Just so you know, I am completely in love with Jess and Rory. I mean it, I am the biggest Literati Junkie there ever was.

So, in this fic, everything is how it was, in the episode with Liz' wedding. Except: Rory never called Dean, Rory was alone at her dorm when Jess showed up, and, in the future, Rory and Dean never, EVER, sleep together. That's so gross, yuck, I HATE Dean with a passion.

Told from Jess' POV

Okay. I am going to do it. I am. This time, right now. I know, I have been walking up to her door and turning around and walking away for the last two hours now, but, this time, I am going to do it. I am going to get Rory Gilmore back. I love her, and she loves me, at least, she did. God, I pray she still does.

I knocked. And waited. Seconds, slow, agonizing seconds crawled by, until I heard the sound of metal on metal, and the door opened a crack. I put on a smile, a real smile, not a smirk, and looked at her. "Rory..."

"Oh God, Jess, what…"

"Rory, no, just listen. Just, please Rory, please, just listen okay? Just hear me out. Please…"

"Fine. Come on." She walked back into her dorm, towards a stack of boxes, leaving the door open. I followed her in. She stopped in front a few boxes of books. On top, I saw _Oliver Twist._ She turned around and started up with the rambling. "Why won't you leave me alone? You won't go away."

"Rory I…" I started. God, this is a lot harder than it was in the hall an hour ago.

"What?"

"Come with me." There, I said it. I said it. I knew she was going to say no, just looking at her. I knew it. I could tell with that kind of thing.

"Jess…what? What?" She was confused.

"Come away with me."

"What? Where?"

"I don't know," I said, staring at the boxes, "away."

"Jess, are you okay? Are you crazy?"

"Probably. Come on, don't think about it. Do it. Come with me."

"I…" she let out a few nervous laughs, "I cant do that. You know that."

"You don't think you can, but you can. You can do whatever you want, Rory."

"That's not what I want."

" It is," I knew it was, "I know you."

"No you don't, you don't." She tried to move away, to go away, but I wouldn't let her.

I grabbed her shoulders, turning he to face me. "But you're packed, you're stuff is all in boxes. It's perfect, you're ready," I paused, thinking, how to convince her. I needed to convince her. "And I'm ready. I'm ready for this, you can count on me now. I know you couldn't count on me before, but you can now, you can!" My voice cracked, and I could tell she knew.

"How do I know that? How do I know I can believe that?"

"Rory, I love you. I told you before, and I meant it. I know, I know, I was stupid, God, I was so stupid. Rory, you are the best thing that's ever happened to me. I can't let you out of my life, not again. I'm not anything without you. I cant stop thinking about you. Please Rory, please, give me a second chance, I wont let you down. I can't, not this time." I could barely see her. I was crying. God, I was crying. The tears, they weren't falling down or anything, but everything was all blurry. I closed my eyes really tightly, thinking, thinking of how I could convince her. "Rory, you always told me, you used to tell me how you wanted to do something crazy, something impulsive. Please, I wont make you that girl again. I wont be the boyfriend who treats his girlfriend badly, I'll be good. I'll make it up to you." I took a deep breath, my eyes were still closed.

I heard a sigh, followed by a long pause. "Okay." It was barely audible, I almost wasn't sure she said it. I opened my eyes.

"Okay?"

She looked at my shoulder. "Ok Jess. Ok. Your right, everyone deserves a second chance. One month. You have one month to show me that you can do this, but, Jess, I'm not going to be that girl. If you try to make me that girl, I'm leaving, and there's not such thing as a third chance."

Wow. She said okay. She's coming away with me. I never once thought…. I never thought she'd come. "Wow. Okay. Okay, well, uh, here, let me get these boxes. Where do you want to go?"

"I don't know."

I got all the boxes in the car. There was only one left, Rory was in her dorm, making sure she had everything. I walked up to her. I gave her a tentative hug, not knowing if it was okay or not, but, when she squeezed me back, I relaxed a bit. God, I missed her. "Rory?"

"Yeah Jess?"

"I still love you."

"Wow….I, uh, I think I still love you too." I smiled. "But, Jess, that still doesn't mean you don't owe me. You still have to prove this to me."

"I know. I so owe you. I';; take you wherever you want." I stopped down, grabbing the last box in one hand, and grabbing her hand with my other hand. "Whatever you want Rory, whatever, wherever. We can go wherever you want to go. I don't care. Just let me go with you."

She nodded. We walked out to the car. I put the box in the car, and opened her car door for her, kissing her hand after she got in. She giggled a bit. I smirked. I ran around the other side and got in.

"Wow," I said, starting the ignition, "Just like old times, huh?"

"Yeah, Jess, but better. Better."

"Yeah, better. I'm better now." I turned the wheel and started to back out.

"So, Rory, where to?"

EEK! Yall what'd you think? Was it good. God, review, please. I live for Literatis, so I really, really want it to be good. Tell me if it's cheesy, or if the writing is really sucky. Oh, Amy Sherman Paladino owns everything.


	2. Who else would the Gummy Bears play with

Amy Sherman Palladino owns everyone and a little of the dialogue from the first chapter.

"So, Rory, where to?"

She looked at me for a minute, a smirk on her face. "Anywhere?"

"Anywhere."

"It can be far away?"

"Rory when I was 18 I found away to get from Stars Hollow to Venice Beach on about 100 dollars."

She nodded. "Right, so, anywhere then. Let's go to…San Francisco!"

She looked at me as if she expected me to say something else, something contradictory, like she expected me to say no. I started the car and started to drive away. "San Francisco it is."

After a few miles, she looked at me, putting her hand on my arm. "Jess, you know I'm going to have to call her, right? I have to tell her where I am, why I'm not going to stars hollow."

I kept my eyes on the road, staring straight ahead. "I know."

"I can do it tomorrow morning. I don't have to do it now."

I nodded. "Okay." I thought for a few minutes. "Rory, you know, when you call her….she's going to say things, she's going to try to convince you that….that you made a mistake. That you should get out, go home. Rory-"

"No Jess." She looked at me, "No, I said I'd give you a second chance and I will. This is what I want.

"Okay. Good."

"Great." She kissed my cheek and we kept driving.

"So Jess, read any good books lately?"

I pulled over. We needed gas. Rory was asleep already, but I thought she might be hungry, I knew she would be hungry.

I shook her shoulder gently. "Rory. Rory?"

"Mmmmmmmmmm"

"Rory. We stopped. Do you want some food? Come inside, get some food."

She started to get up. We walked to the convenience store. I put my arm around her waist. She stopped, making me stop with her. She turned to face me. "Rory?"

"Jess, wait. Jess, what are we doing? Are we dating? Right now, are we dating, you know, like doing the whole dating thing? Or are we just friends right now?"

Wow, the things I could say to that. What I wanted to say, something along the lines of, 'God yes. Yes we're dating.' Then she would grab me and kiss me like there was no tomorrow. That wasn't going to happen though. "Whatever you want Rory."

"So…if I want to be dating…?"

I smiled. "Sounds good to me."

"So… we do things that dating couples do?"

I raised my eyebrows at her. I didn't know where this was heading. She pinched my shoulder playfully. I laughed. "Ow...Sounds about right."

She nodded. Then she leaned forward and kissed me. It felt like heaven. I thought I missed her before, but no, I had missed her too much to explain. Her lips felt so good on mine. They felt like a promise. A promise that this was going to work. That she was going to try her best to make it work. That it was my responsibility to make it work.

We broke apart. I smiled at her as we turned to walk to the store. "Rory?"

"Jess?"

"I…I really, really missed you."

"I know. I missed you to."

"And, I love you. And it's okay if you don't want to say it back because I broke your heart and I left you, but, I know that you used to love me. I'm going to try to make you love me again. Do you think you could ever love me again?" I looked at her, hopefully.

"Yeah Jess. I think I could love you again. In fact, I'm not sure about this, but, I think I might love you now. I think I just might."

I smiled, put my arm around her, and guided her to store. I kissed the top of her head. Her hair smelled like peaches.

I opened the door for her. There was no one in the store.

"Wow, what time is it. How long have I been asleep?"

"It's around one. No need to freak out." I paused, looking at the shelved. "Beef Jerky?"

"Please, oh, and can we get Pringles and Oreos... ooh!Peanut butter!"

"Yes ma'am. Oooh," I started, playing along with her game, "can I get Cheez Nips and Red Bull and cheerios?"

"Right, well, If you get all that, then I get Coffee and Gummy bears."

"Of course," I stopped scanning the shelves for one last thing, "Okay I get M n' M's."

"God, how could we not get M n' M's? I mean, what would the gummy bears have to play with?"

"Beats me. Okay, so, we get Beef Jerky, Pringles, Oreos, peanut butter, Cheez Nips, Red Bull, Cheerios, Coffee, Gummy Bears, M n' M's, and, how about two sandwiches?"

"Sounds like a home cooked meal." She said in all honesty. I laughed.

We paid for our food, and left.

"Jess?"

"Rory." I said. We were in the car, but we were still parked, we were dividing all the food, opening everything up.

"Um, you know, it's getting late. Aren't you kind of tired. Do you think we should stop somewhere?"

Yes, I wanted to stop somewhere. I was tired. I didn't want to make her fell uncomfortable though. "Is that okay with you?"

"Yea, I mean, I cant make you drive all night," she started eating some Pringles.

"Okay, so we stop."

"Yes."

R-E-V-I-E-W

Ok, thanks syou oh so much for the reviews. I love them. It rocks, getting reviews. Hey, yeah, I know, Jess is a little OOC. But, during that episode, where he is at Rory's dorm, it was so sad. He was acting way different than he was in season 3. His voice, maybe this was just me, but I think I heard his voice cracking. God, it was so romantic. I swear, I cried. Haha, I know I know, I am a sap, it's pathetic. Anyway, I really like this story, so I'm going to try to make it long.

Oh, and, sometimes I have trouble updating so sorry if there are any long delays, but keep cheking and reviewing!


	3. Watching you sleep

She grabbed her purse and opened the door. "I'll go check in."

I nodded and she left. I looked after her, watching as she skipped up the building and opened the glass door. How did I get so lucky?

I parked the car and went to look for her in the lobby. We were somewhere in Pennsylvania, near the Ohio border. It was a small town, probably a little bigger than Stars Hallow. The hotel was slightly more commercial than the Dragonfly, but, I have to say, nothing van quite compare to Lorelei's inn. Yes, Rory's mother hated my guts, but, I had to have respect for her. The way everything worked out with Rory's dad, and they way everything happened to her, it must have been hard, that's all I'm saying.

As I opened the door I heard snippets on conversation, the one most interesting, though, was happening between Rory and the clerk behind the counter.

"No, _you_ don't understand! I _need _two beds, not one, two!"

"I'm terribly sorry ma'am, but we are almost full. The only rooms we have left have one bed. It's terribly late, you know."

I was reminded of how late is was, or early, around 4, and I started to feel sorry for the man. I walked up to Rory.

"Look, _Michel,_ I need two beds! And don't call me ma'am! I'm nineteen, not fifty. You call people like my grandmother ma'am. Not me! I'm not- "

I grabbed Rory's arm. "Excuse me sir," I set pointedly to the clerk, "Would you mind if I borrowed her for just a little minute?"

The man nodded gratefully and I walked her away. "Ow…Jess, ouch. What are you doing. Can't you see I'm negotiating over there? Did you hear how many beds they want to give us?" She stared at me expectantly. I started to smirk.

"Wow, Rory, while that reference to Michel was pretty funny, it is pretty late." She just glared at me. "Look, Rory, it's four in the morning. Be reasonable, okay? We'll just have to get a room with one bed, but I'll handle it okay? Don't freak out." I turned and walked back to the desk. I could feel her gaze burning my back. I knew what she was thinking. When did I get to be so responsible? The thing is, I knew what she was freaking out about, but I just didn't think there was anything to worry about.

When we got to the room, Rory laid down on the bed, staring at me expectantly, as if to say, _Way to handle it. _I sighed and, grabbing a pillow from the bed, stretched out on the floor. A second later, Rory was leaning off the bed, so that her top half was hanging a foot or so over my face.

"Jess?"

"Yes Rory?"

"What are you doing?"

I stared at her for a minute, as if to say, _what else would I be doing?_ "Um, I'm handling it."

She looked into my eyes, and se saw something there. I was trying to protect her, and she knew it. I didn't want her to feel insecure about this, uncertain, and she knew it. I didn't want to make her uncomfortable around me, and she knew it. Something changed inside her.

"Oh. You really don't have to do that. No, really, I mean it Jess, it's okay. You don't have to worry about me. I'm a big girl. I know that you don't have cooties or anything."

"Naw, it's not so bad down here. Don't worry about it."

"No," she said firmly, "I'm worrying about it. I started worrying about it, and, when I get to worrying about it, there's just no telling what lengths I'll go to to stop worrying about it. Jess, I mean it. You've been driving all night, and I've been sleeping. Now, you either come up here and stop being so stubborn or I'm going down there."

I rolled my eyes and sighed overdramatically. She laughed. I laid down on the bed, making sure to leave a good distance in between us. She put her head next to mine on the pillow.

"Good night Jess."

I kissed her hair. "Night Rory."

I woke up the next morning late, around 10:30. Rory's head had ended up on my shoulder, with my face in her hair. I had my arm carelessly draped over her shoulders. I sighed, inhaling her scent, and closed my eyes. My plan was to lay there, just like that, just a little longer.

Soon, the form in my arms started to writher and twist, stretching out her body from the long night. "Jess?" The sound was smothered into my skin, and her head rolled around to look at me, expectantly, with her doe eyes.

"Hey." I said, rolling out of bed and stumbling into the bathroom.

"Hi," she answered, following me with her eyes.

"So," I called from the bathroom, "I was thinking, you know we could get ready to go, you know shower, change, all that, then we could go find some decent coffee and breakfast, and we could get going. You know, if we leave by 1 we could probably make it past Chicago today, so we should get going. Don't you think?"

"Jess, how long have you been up?"

I cam out the bathroom, dressed and ready to go. "Why?"

"Oh, just because when I wake up, I'm not as organized and thoughtful as you were now."

"Oh, well, in that case, about twenty minutes, not to long." She started as me as if she wanted to say something. "Say it."

"What?"

"Say whatever it is you want to say. I know you want to say something."

"What were you doing? I mean, you _woke_ up twenty minutes ago, but you just _got _up." She looked into my eyes, as if looking for a reason. I knew I couldn't lie to her. Yes, it would make me look like a sissy, and, yes, it would mean showing her my emotions, but, I told her I would try. I did, now I had to show her, to show her that I could do this, that I had changed. I looked away from her gaze, shifting my weight so stare at a stain on the carpet not too far away. "Jess?"

"I…I… don't laugh okay?" She smiled and nodded, and I sighed and went on. "I was just laying there, laying with you. You were all tangled up in me and I was just laying there with you, watching you sleep…" I paused, looking at her face, but I couldn't tell what she was thinking. "I… know it sounds stupid and it is, it's just that, well-" I came to a loss of words, but it didn't matter anyway, because she was climbing off of the bed and coming towards me.

She walked across the room until she was inches from my face. She draped her arms over my shoulders and kissed my lips. "Thanks." That was all she said. I didn't know what she was thanking me for. The way I saw it, I should be thanking her. I just stared after her. She looked around for her purse, and, finding it, she pulled out her cell phone and waved it at me.

"I'm going to go make a call okay?" She walked towards the door, pausing on the way to kiss me on the cheek. I'll be right back, then we can check out." She opened the door and left.

I felt like a hormonal teenage girl. Just a half an hour ago, I was laying in bed with Rory, watching her sleep, smelling her hair, being as happy as I ever was, because she had given me a second chance, a flicker of hope; and it was my job the fuel the flicker, make it into a blaze. Ten minutes ago, I was standing in the middle of the room, ashamed to tell her. Why was I ashamed to tell her? I knew she wouldn't have thought anything of it. I knew it was all in my head, all the nervousness. Five minutes ago, I couldn't have been more confused. _She_ was thanking _me. _That really didn't make any sense. And now, here I was, alone in a hotel room, scared silly. My girlfriend, the same girl who I ran away from in senior year, the same girl who's mom I verbally assaulted the first time I met her, was going outside to call her mom to tell her that she was running away with me. I just knew in my head, Lorelei is not going to take this news happily. Oh no, no good could come from this call.


	4. Don't get broken

Ok… Author's note. This story, in this chapter, I'm going to start working in a little Java Junkie. Since Luke and Lorelei are clearly nowhere near Rory and Jess, these parts of the story can't be told in Jess' POV. So, in the parts of the story involving Luke and Lorelei, if Jess is not there, then it will be told my a narrarator. Sorry for the confusion. That little part just hit me this morning. So, sorry for the confusion. Happy reading!

LUKE'S DINER

"Luuuuke!"

Luke heard the bell ring as the door opened and creaked shut. He looked up to see Lorelei walking towards the counter, as usual, overly bouncy, as usual.

"Hey," he said.

"Luke. Coffee."

"No." At his words, she sighed, knowing that this was going to be one of those days where she would have to work for her coffee.

"Pretty please Lukey Luke?"

"Stop calling me that."

"But Luke," she started, overdramatically fluttering her eyelashes, "Today is a _special_ day. Rory's coming today. I have to be bouncy and excited for Rory! Don't you want me to be bouncy for Rory?"

"Fine."

"Why thank you kind sir. My utmost gratitude for all eternity," she replied in a phony southern accent, all the while reaching out to the cup Luke held in his hands. As soon as he set the mug down, Lorelei's cell phone rang. Lorelei answered.

"OUTSIDE." In response, Lorelei crossed her index fingers and hissed at him, then kept talking, only louder. Luke just rolled his eyes and kept working.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

(Back with Rory and Jess now, just a head up)

"Hey Mom….no I'm good. What time? Oh, well, uhm, actually, that's what I called about. Yea, see, an unexpected friend showed up last night at my dorm, and….what? Yes, totally unexpected I swear. Yea, well, they needed me for a few weeks. Yea, a few weeks. I know Mom, I know, I miss you too. What? Who is it. Oh it's, uhm," She paused there, we were outside the lobby. We had checked and, and the car was all packed. We were sitting on a bench in the courtyard, Rory still talking to her mom. She looked at me, nervously, and then, barely audible, muttered in response to the question at hand. "Jess. Yes, I did just say Jess. No, its not a joke, why would I joke about that? It's not even funny." There was a long silence on Rory's end, and I could almost hear Lorelei, sitting at Luke's or at the Dragonfly, preaching about how bad of an idea this was. "No mom, no. We' re taking a little road trip….oh, well we're not entirely sure yet. Yes, I'll call you when we do get there…yes…wherever there is, right. Yes, I have food. Yes, I have coffee. Yes, I have my books. No, I'm okay I swear. Okay, I promise, first thing when we get back, you get all my time. I mean it, twenty-four-seven. No, no… I don't even know you 're talking about. Jess who?" She laughed. "Okay Mom, I love you too. Yea, bye."

Rory sighed, pocketing her phone, and leaned against me on the Bench. "And?" I asked.

"She's pretty upset. I mean, she is really shocked at how I just ran away with you. But really, the main thing that she is upset about, is that I wont have as much time with her is Stars Hollow."

"Really, that's all?" I asked hopefully, but, all in all, that didn't sound too bad.

"Oh, well, she says that you better not crash," I smirked, thinking back to that night in Junior year when I had crashed her car, breaking her wrist. "Oh yea, and, the opening of the dragonfly is June 28th, so we better be back by then or else she'll kick your but."

"Sounds fair."

"I'd say so." With those words, we got up, jumping into the car.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Luke stood on the other side of the counter, listening to Lorelei rant into her phone.

"Hello? Oh hey Rory! Listen, what time are you getting her today, because I need to make sure that I have swallowed enough coffee to be bouncy enough." Luke watched as her face fell. "What do you mean unexpected? Unexpected? Well why? For how long…. A few weeks? Well what about our summer? I miss you Rory, you're my kid you know, that much I am sure about! Well….who is it? It better be some good, and I mean _really_ good. I'm talking I'm talking Billy Jack good. Oh no, I'm talking Leonardo DiCaprio good. Did you just say Jess?" Lorelei glared at Luke, who made a face back is if to say _what?_ "Well haha, what are you joking? Oh, no, not joking, okay. Rory, you know I think this is a bad idea. Jess is unpredictable, unreliable. Do you even remember what happened last time you got in a car with him? You got broken. Do you remember that, being broken? Rory, how much did you even think about this. You know that- What? Why? Okay, well, clearly you've got your mind made up on this matter. Where are you going? Okay, well, let me know when you get there okay? I want to know where you go. Do you have food? Is he feeding you? Is he pulling a Luke and depriving you of coffee? Did he hijack and deface all your books? Okay, fine. Remember kid, you are mine when you get back, and I do mean mine. This is cutting down on Lorelei time you know. There will be no sneaking to Jess, it is going to be all me babe. Okay, well, the inn is opening on the 28th, so you two better have your butts back here by then, oh, and tell Jess that if you get broken again, I swear I will kill him this time. Okay, I love you kiddo. Have fun, you deserve a great vacation. Okay, bye."

Luke stared at Lorelei, "Jeez, what was that all about?"

Lorelei started down, suddenly very disinterested in her coffee. "She's not coming. She cane make it." She looked up at Luke, "Oh, we need to talk. Wait till you hear this…" She grabbed his shirt sleeve and pulled him upstairs.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sorry it's so short. I just…thought this would be a good stopping point. I really don't feel good so I thought it better to get the chapter up and have it be a little short than to make you wait a few days. So… review, read, enjoy, have fun, make popcorn, you know. Oh, and, I don't know If I want them to go to San Francisco…it's too touristy, but, then again, they might. Oh yeah, Happy Mardi Gras!


	5. Whatever, Where ever

AN: Sorry yall! My computer's power cord broke so I couldn't charge it up. It died and I couldn't turn it back on. I'll hope you forgive me! Usually updates will come faster.

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Four long days, three extremely long nights spent driving, and six meals composed completely of convenient store food later, we found ourselves in San Francisco.

"What do you want to do?" I asked Rory. We had parked our car, and now walked hand in hand down a path that promised a view of the Golden Gate Bridge at the end.

"Well," Rory said slowly, teasing me as I waited, watching her lips form each word, "I was thinking a hotel might be nice."

I nodded, and we continued walking.

"Did you know my mom was engaged once?"

I looked at her. "No, I didn't," I replied, then, a minute later, "What happened?"

"She called it off. She said she didn't love him. On the Friday before her wedding, she came into my room and started packing up my clothes, telling me we were going on a trip. She was frantic, really, a mess. Can you even imagine that, my mom, a mess?"

"Really?" I looked at her, half wondering why she was telling me this, half trying to imagine Lorelei broken down. "She's usually so strong. I've never seen her break down or cry. I mean, she's never really all together, but she's never completely apart."

"I know. It was weird." She looked at me, and I kissed her. "Anyway, we went on a road trip. Mom said it was supposed to be about spontaneity, and, when she found out that I had bought a map, she got all mad. What happened was that we ended up staying at this horrible bed and breakfast."

I smirked, a chuckle escaping my lips. We had reached the promised lookout point, but, as not advertised on the sign; a shroud of fog covered most of the bridge, making 'San Francisco's best views of the Golden Gates' useless. Nevertheless, I sat down, pulling her down with me. She slung her legs, crossed at the ankles, over my lap, and leaned her head on my shoulder. I put my arm around her, pulling her close to me as my fingers burned on her back.

"Really," she went on, "It was terrible, you would have hated it. There was this wall paper on that had about a thousand flowers, I'm not even exaggerating, and it matched the sheets on the bed. It was pathetic. Once, we went downstairs to find them all watching a hummingbird, saying that "The Marvels of nature can't be kept in the fricken schedule."

"So, what you're basically saying is, my personal hell?"

"Exactly," she paused, tracing unseen patterns on my sleeve. "Anyway, we actually went to see Harvard, that was back when I still wanted to go there. The trip turned out really fun." Another long pause. This one spent looking out over the bay, trying to clear the fog. "Spontaneous, it was never really something that came naturally to me." She looked up at me, staring at me, looking for something in my face.

"What?"

"It always came naturally for you, you know. You're always so, impulsive, you always were. One time, Laine, she didn't even like you, she said that that's what makes you cute, your spontaneity, your carelessness, your free spirit."

"Well, glad to know I'm thought so highly of." I joked, but I knew that I would have to say something. I had barely said something the whole time we had been there.

"So what if you're not impulsive, huh? Why does it matter? You have so many good things about you. If you were impulsive, we wouldn't work. We would just be two wandering spirits. You bring order to my life, Rory. You represent the few things that are real and stable in my life. I bring chaos to your life; I break down all the little borders, so that everything inside of you gets all mixed up, and you love it. If it weren't like that, I couldn't love you." I looked at her, studying her face, reading what she was thinking. She was shocked that I had sad that much. Six months ago, I would have been shocked too, but now, it was comforting, that I could give this insight into me, almost relaxing. "I love you so much the way you are, Rory."

Reaching up, she kissed my neck only once. It wasn't in a sexual way, it was just simple, sincere, loving. She rested her head on my chest, and pulled herself close into me. "Your right," she whispered. I didn't respond, just kissed her hair.

We sat like that for a long time. I don't even know how long. She doesn't either. It was just a little before sunset when we got up.

We ended up staying at this little hotel called the Renaissance Inn. It had green carpeting. With green and white striped wallpaper. In the corner, there was a brown mini fridge, complete with those little bottles of liquor that were always so overpriced. On the dresser, there was a cheap boom box, I guess in case anyone wanted to play cd's. On one wall, there was a window seat that looked over this little street. The windows opened and everything. There was only one bed, but Rory didn't seem to mind. I know I didn't it. I guess after the first night, she had gotten over that whole fear, that whole awkwardness.

We had only been in our room for about an hour. I took my shower first. When I came out, I found her reading on the window seat with the windows open. She had some music playing, something by Soul Coughing. I pulled on a pair of pants and a t-shirt, and sat next to her on the ledge.

"What are you reading?"

She looked up at me, oddly, almost surprised to see me. "East of Eden."

"Ah, Steinbeck."

"Yeah," getting up to stretch, she put her bookmark in and handed it to me. "Ever read it?"

I examined the cover, flipping the book open to the first page. When I was little, I developed this habit of reading the first page to help me decided whether the book was worth buying or not. "Can't say that I have. It's on my list of books to read though."

"Well, I'll pass it on to you when I'm done then."

"It would be greatly appreciated."

She nodded. "Ok, well, I'm going to shower. Hey, you find someplace for us to eat."

I looked at her, and she cocked her head to one side, smirking at me. "Why me?" I asked.

"You used to live in California, that year that you lived with Jimmy. I know it was in the south, but still, I've never even left the northeast before, except to go to Europe." She made a pouty face at me. "Pwease Jessy Wessy?"

I rolled my eyes in mock frustration and forced a phony sigh out of my lips. "Fine Rory Wory." She skipped over to me and just barely touched her lips to mine, giving me a slow kiss. Her lips smoldered on mine. I held her face close to mine with one hand on the back of her head and the other on her cheek. She pulled her hands away from where they preciously lay cupped around the back of my neck. Then just abruptly as she had walked over to me, she walked away.

When she reached the bathroom door, she twirled around and beamed at me. "Love you Jess." Then she went in the bathroom and I heard the shower turn on.

When she came out of the shower, she found me in a similar state that I had found her in. I sat on the floor with my back against the window seat, reading, only I had replaced her Soul Coughing by an old Pixies cd I had handy.

She emerged wearing a faded jean skirt with a frayed edge and an oversized t-shirt. She sat, cross legged, next to me one the ground, and looked ever my shoulder.

"What are you reading?"

I felt my lips spread into a smile as she imitated my actions of a half hour before. I lifted my head to face her. "Middlesex."

"Ah, Jeffery Eugenides. Didn't that win the Pulitzer?"

She quizzed me. I knew she knew the answer. She knew I knew she knew the answer. Of course I knew the answer. I was reading the book. "Yeah, it did."

"Virgin Suicides was great," she added.

"If not slightly depressing, but I agree."

I got up and stretched, pulling her up with me. "So, Rory, I have this incredible spontaneous idea."

"Really?" She lifted her hand to her chest in feigned shock. "Do tell."

"Sorry lady," I admit, slightly taking pleasure in her, well, what would be, frustration. "No can do."

"Je-e-es," she whined, turning my name into a three-syllable word.

"Sorry Rory, it's a surprise. Think of it as romantic, if you will."

"Whatever," she sighed.

I thought back to years ago, my first year in Star's Hollow, when I had crashed her car. _But what will you do? _She had asked. _Whatever._ I remember the way she looked at me, almost, concerned. _Well where will you live?_ My answer was so silly, naive. _Where ever. _She had only stared at me, and then, as if she knew she was never going to change me, sighed, almost mockingly so. _Whatever, where ever._

Now I stood, not a yard away from her, watching her as she peeled off her giant shirt to reveal a plain white tank top as she dug through her bag for a green sweater, and, upon retrieving it, pulled it over her head. The static from the sweater rubbing against her made her hair stand up frizzy. I walked over to her and ran my hands through her hair, smoothing it down. "Whatever, where ever," I sighed in reminiscence.

She put her hands on my chest and giggled, clearly remembering too.


	6. The Stuff Books are Made Of

AN: Hey, I don't really have anything to say, it's just weird not having anything here. Oh, I HATE Logan. Marty, Marty, Marty! Oh, I know, I had not LL in the last chapter. Sorry. I'll have some here. Review please!

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I held her hand tightly as I guided her through the market. I guess you could call it a market. It was outside. What we were looking for, though she didn't know it yet, was a crab vendor. They are these people, Sasha told me about once, and they sell crab. You watch them crack open the shell for you, then they give it to you in this little basket and you pay them and take it away. You don't eat there. I thought we could find an empty pier somewhere by the bay and sit out there eating.

We got our food and two Root Beers and we started walking towards the bay to look for a place to eat.

I held the bag of food in one hand and held Rory's hand in my other.

"Jess?"

"Yes Rory?"

"Where are we going?"

"I don't know." I looked at her, and her face lit up. "Why don't you decide?"

We ended up wandering over to a pier. It was one of those ones with all the shops on it. It wasn't too touristy, but there were a few other people around. Mostly couples, but there was one or two families with little kids sitting on benches, looking at the seals. We walked over to the part of the wood that didn't have a guardrail and sat down across from each other, cross-legged, and started eating.

"It's almost like being home, on the bridge."

I looked around, noting a few similarities, "Yeah, it is." I thought a minute, except, you know, there are seals around and no Taylor or Ms. Patty to catch us making out."

She raised her eyebrows, as if carefully considering my last remark, "That _is_ a perk," she finally said. I smirked.

"Liz got married. I don't know if your mom told you, she probably did. I just thought you should know, though. You know, just in case you didn't."

She looked at me funny. "Yeah my mom told me." She looked at me expectantly, then, when I didn't say anything, pressed on. "And?" She questioned.

"I don't know, I was just thinking about it. Its weird, you know? I mean, of course the guy's a fruit, they all are, but he treats her well, so that's good. She's happy. It's just weird. I don't know why I keep thinking about it. I shouldn't care, but I do."

"I know exactly what you mean. If my mom ever got married, it would be awkward. With Max, the guy she was engaged to, it was weird, but, I think that's just because he was my English teacher. My relationship with my mom would be totally different if that ever happened, if she had married him."

I though about this for a minute and realized that it was true. If Lorelei ever got married, she and Rory would never be able to be as close as they are. Then a thought came into my head. I asked her about it. "Well what about Luke?"

"What about Luke?"

"I mean what if the guy was Luke. We all know he has a thing for her. It's just a matter of time before she realizes it and realizes that she doesn't exactly hate him either. You know?"

She considered this for a minute. "Yeah," she started, slowly, "but Luke has somewhat always been there for us. I don't know if that would really be that big of a change."

"I guess you're Right."

A comfortable silence fell between us. In this time, she shifted so that she was laying the wood of the pier with her head in my lap. I looked over her. She had change into a red sweater. Her hair was straight, and she had grown it a little past her shoulders and started wearing it with a side part. "You're pretty," I said in a singsong voice, the way a six year old would.

She laughed and threw her hand at my shoulder, but I caught it and kissed it instead.

"I know of a place that you will love," I looked down at her, and she perked up, rolling her head back to look at me.

"Yeah?"

I nodded, pulling her up, "Come on."

And so we walked into the night. The air was heavy with the mist rolling off the bay, and we were simply intoxicated in each other. We were young and in love, and we had the world at out fingertips. This is the stuff that books are made of.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Luke sat at Lorelei's kitchen table, watching her as she carried on making tea. He had come over to fix a bookshelf that Lorelei had tried to put in herself but had failed miserably.

"Any more calls from Rory?" Luke asked.

She finally came to sit at the table with a cup of coffee and a cup of tea. 'No, not since that first one. Jess?"

Luke shook his head.

Lorelei was the next to talk. "It's so unlike her." And then, verbalizing the question that they had been secretly asking themselves for the last week, "DO you think they're okay, Luke?" He looked up to look at her face. It was twisted with worry and concern, and, for a brief moment, he hated Rory for doing this, for making Lorelei hurt like this. "There are so many stupid things they could be doing. Do you think they're being stupid? I hope not. She better not. This is killing me. Why haven't they called? He better not hurt her."

Then Luke thought of Jess, his nephew. He loved him. Of course he loves him. Jess was stupid, and stubborn, and rude, but he loved him, and, as much as he hated to admit it, he missed him. Luke really cared about those two kids, together, with Lorelei, they were three of the few people he cared about most in the world.

"Luke?" Lorelei called out his name.

Her voice brought him back to reality. He tried to comfort Lorelei. "I'm sure they're fine Lorelei. They're smart kids. They wouldn't do anything dangerous." He fell into silence again. He didn't know how to comfort her, he didn't know what to do. This wasn't what Luke Danes was good at. He looked up at her face and watched, horrified, as a solitary tear slipped down her check.

He pulled his chair closer to her's and put his arm around her as she began to shake as the more and more tears appeared. "Hey now, Lorelei, come on," he tried hopelessly to calm her down. "Come on Lorelei, don't cry. Come one, we can watch a movie. D0 you want to watch a movie? Come on." He pulled her up and guided her to the living room.

He picked out a movie, something called The Way We Were, something he had heard her talk about with Rory in the diner a few times, and slipped it into the DVD Player.

He sat down on the couch next to her. Lorelei looked at him out of the corner of her eye, before picking up the remote and pausing the movie. Luke turned to her.

"Lorelei?"

"Luke I-" she paused, trying to find the words, "Thanks you. I don't know what I would be doing right now if you weren't here."

He just nodded as she picked up the remote control and pressed play, smiling at him.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Three," she commanded, slamming three cards down next to me knee.

Rory sat, cross-legged, at the foot of the bed facing the headboard, where I was sitting with my back against the wall. There were about fifty chocolate candies and they're wrappers spread out around her. We were playing poker. It was just about midnight.

I dealt her the three cards she had previously requested and took two for myself. She shuffled the cards around in her hand and then looked up at me. "So, Jess, when then you get to be Mr. Romantic?"

I smirked, still looking down at my cards. After dinner we had ridden the trolley to Ghirardelli Square. I had taken her into the chocolate shop and let her buy anything she wanted. She had picked out a dozen or so candies and I had picked out a few more, leading her to pick out even more. Then, oversized bag in tow, I had taken her to the ice cream factory. As we waited in line, I watched her as she watched the giant machines mix and mold the ice cream. I had shared in her fascination of the history of chocolate, and, to top the whole fiasco off, I bought her an oversized chocolate covered waffle cone filled with Double Chocolate Double Brownie Chunk dipped in Rainbow Jimmies. Afterwards of which, all she could say was, "Boy do I love you." I had kissed her and helped her eat her ice cream and reveled in her beauty and glow in the pure delight the evening had brought to her.

Now I looked up at her. She started at me expectantly. "Oh, you know, read a few Jane Austin's in my day," I answered her coolly.

"Right," she said, disbelievingly.

She moved around on the bed so that she sat practically on top of me, with her back now against the same wall as mine. I pulled her into my arms and kissed her anxiously. She fell into the kiss. She wrapped her arms around my neck pulling them as tight as she could. I gripped the skin on the small of her back, just above her hips. My hands slipped under her shirt, rubbing up and down. The kiss became relaxed, more eager. When it was over, she sat, still in my arms, with her forehead resting on mine. Every few minutes we would stretch our lips out, so that they barely touched. We fell asleep like that, entranced in each other.

I woke up the next morning to the sound of the Verve Pipe. We had forgotten to turn of the CD player last night. There was something heavy on my chest: Rory. I kissed her forehead and roller her over so that I could get up. I stumbled into the bathroom and took a shower.

When I was done, I came out to find Rory on the bed, awake but not moving. The song on the CD player had just ended, and she lay there, staring up at me, listening.

_the show is over - close the storybook_

_there will be no encore_

_and all the random hands that i have shook_

_well, they're reaching for the door_

_i watch the backs as they leave single-file_

_you stood stubborn, cheering all the while_

I looked over at Rory, she was so beautiful, her hair was hanging in her face, and she was all enveloped In the white sheets. The sun shone on her face, making in glow golden.

_i know i can be colorful_

_i know i can be grey_

_i know this loser's living fortunate_

_cause i know you will love me either way_

I walked over to the bed, and lay down on it, placing my face inches away from hers. She smiled and raised her hand to brush my check. I ran my fingers through her hair, brushing it from her face. I raised her hand to my lips and kissed it. She beamed.

_most were being good for goodness sake_

_but you wouldn't pantomime_

_you are more beautiful when you awake_

_than most are in a lifetime_

_through the haze that is my memory_

_you stayed for drama though you paid for a comedy_

I looked into her eyes. "Don't I know it." That's all I said.

She smiled and nuzzled my neck.


	7. Mr Cool Cat

That song in the chapter before this was called "Colors" by Verve Pipe, unless I have been misinformed. As usual, I own nothing. Yeah, yeah, you mock me now, but, one day I am going to be famous….

Oh, I'd just like to say, I'm sorry in advance for this. I'm not good at writing a particular type of scene, as you will soon know. Please forgive me. I can't write it without sounding smutty, or just stupid. I don't even know what I'm talking about.

Rory and I were in the middle on enjoying each other's company, when she abruptly pulled away.

"Ohmygod."

"What's wrong?" I asked. She was running around the room looking all over for something, seeming to have found what she was looking for, she revealed her phone, frantically dialing the number. She ran over to the window seat and perched herself there nervously. I got up, sighing, and sat next to her. I put my arm around her waist, leaning in so I would be able to hear both sides of the conversation.

"Mom?"

"Rory? Oh thank God, Rory. Are you all right?" Lorelei's voice spilled out of the phone, filled with worry.

"Yeah Mom, I'm fine I'm so, so sorry I forgot to call. It's just, we just got here yesterday, and we've been really busy."

"Wait, you just got there? Where are you?"

"Well mom, we're in San Francisco," Rory slowly stated. She looked at me and I smiled an encouraging smile.

There was a sharp intake of breath on Lorelei's end, and then, after a slight pause, "Wow."

"Yeah. You should see him mom, you'd be so proud. He was so romantic last night, we went to dinner and-" Great, Rory's talking about me, but Lorelei interrupted.

"Wait, are you still talking about Jess?"

I couldn't help but laugh, and Rory leaned into me. "Yes, Mom, Jess, Jess Mariano. We ate dinner on the docks and then he took me to this chocolate castle-y place full of ice cream and candy. It was like Willy Wonka."

"Aw, well Rory, he seems to be really getting better," there was a bell in the back round, then a different voice came on the phone. "Lorelei," Luke sighed, "You can't just walk in here on your cell phone. No cell phones!" Then there was some clouded commotion, then the phone must have been passed off to Luke.

"Rory, is Jess with you?"

Rory hesitated looking at me, then a smirk formed on her lips. "Yea Luke, he's right here."

Luke went on, "Do me a favor will you, ask Jess how he liked the book."

"Um, ok." Rory looked at me, and I blushed, knowing full well what book he was talking about. She nuzzled back into my side, and continued talking to her mom.

Days passed, soon a week had gone by. We fell into a routine, Rory and I. We would wake up every morning, shower, get dressed, go out, find some breakfast, usually at a little coffee shop at the end of the street, then we would wander around, just enjoying the weather, enjoying each other. Once of twice we wandered into a bookstore. We read a lot too. We visited Stanford, but Rory kept comparing it to Yale, so we left. We would hang out in our room, tossing cards into an upturned hat we had bought at a costume shop, reading, dancing. We ate dinner, either in the room or out. We hung around, playing cards, reading aloud to each other, kissing, sleeping, marveling in love.

Currently, we lay in bed. It was raining outside. We were hanging upside down off of the bed, taking bets on who could stay like that longer. Of course Rory could, leave it up to her to be good at something insane like that. She finally sat up, getting up to push back the blinds, tapping on the window, as if willing the rain to stop. She turned and stared at me.

"Je-es, I'm bored." I had sat up so that I was facing her, and she trudged towards me and plopped down, making the whole bed shake. "Ooh, I have an idea."

"Do you?" I inquired.

"I do." She stopped talking, and I looked at her expectantly. "Oh, ok, well, why don't we have a dinner party?"

I looked at her questionably. "A dinner party, huh? With who?"

She looked like I was crazy. "Um me, and…you," she paused, looking up as if racking her brain, "Yeah, that's right, me and you." I laughed; she tuned towards me.

"No, Jess, really!" She got up and started pacing, clearly excited. "We could order room service and buy candles and get some really swanky music and clothes and we could have a full on dinner party."

I considered this for a few minutes. The idea definitely had some potential. "Yeah, okay Rory, I can see it."

"Ooh," she squealed, "Okay, so, how about seven-ish? That will give us about three hours to get ready. I'll go get some decorations, and you go get some music. We can meet back here and order the food by, um, six, and that will give us one hour to get ready."

I looked up at her, amazed at how scheming she really was. "Sounds good."

She grabbed her purse, and marched towards the door, pausing briefly to overdramatically blow me a kiss. Then she was out the door and gone. I sighed, getting up.

It was 6:45. The food was made, all the preparations were done. I was in the bathroom, still getting ready, and Rory was in the room, setting up, I assume. I went along with her dinner. I had even bought her a bracelet to give her. I had on a pair of black pants with a black and white shirt. I also had an old bowl, Charlie Chaplin-esque hat I had found at a thrift shop. The end was result was very cool.

When I walked out of the bathroom, I was amazed. Rory was wearing a green slip dress that went a little past her knees, and a pair of black, strappy heels. The dress was almost iridescent, and had a low V-neck. She had a shiny necklace on, and she wore her hair curled. She was prancing about, overjoyed, reaching to light the tons of little candles she had bought. I came up behind her, slipping my arms around her waist.

"Beautiful," I muttered into her neck. She turned around in my arms, leaning up against the dresser.

"Well, well, well, look who's Mr. Cool Cat all of a sudden." I smirked, and her lips landed on mine. We were interrupted, seconds later, by a knock on the door and the call of room service.

She ran to get the food, me following behind her. "What'd you order me?"

She turned around to look at me as she unlocked the door. "Liver and Onions."

"Good one, Conan."

The bellhop left the shiny tray of food, handing Rory a slip of paper. As she signed it, I dug through the dishes. As the door shut again, I began to rearrange the silver plates on the table that Rory had setup.

"Wow," I breathed, looking down at all the food.

"What," she asked, worriedly, looking over my shoulder.

"Is there anything you didn't order?" She pouted and crossed her arms as I pulled out her chair for her.

We ate dinner, casually chatting, not about anything important, just, things. A song came one, some slow one I had never heard of before. Rory jumped up, gushing, "Ooh, Jess, I love this song."

"Huh," was all I said.

She got up, and starting moving around the room. "No, Je-es, I want to dance! Come dance with me."

I just laughed.

She stopped, staring at me. "This is so not a laughing matter."

I stared back at her. "Yes it is."

"Hey Mr., if you don't get your but up right now and come here, I'm going to…I'll…"

I smirked, amused, "You'll what?" I asked.

"I'll…" she stopped at a loss for words. A look of realization washed over her. "I'll tell everyone about that time you 'got hit in the eye with a football." She said the last part gesturing in the air with her fingers, making little quotation marks.

A false gasp escaped my lips. I got up, walking over to her. She slung her hands on my shoulders. "You wouldn't…"

She interrupted me, an evil smile toying with her lips, "Oh, but I would."

She ran over to the CD player, restarting the song, and we danced.

"You know," I said into her hair, "I always thought it looked kind of corny when people made quotation marks in the air with their fingers."

She laughed, tickling my neck with her breath, "Oh really?" More breathing.

"Yeah," I stated defiantly.

"It worked."

I kissed her, long and slow, "That it did." She barely had time to let a smirk play on her lips before I took possession of them, yet again.

And then we weren't dancing anymore, just kissing, standing in the middle of our hotel room, in the middle of everything, just kissing.

And then we were on the bed, with me on top of her. Still kissing. My shirt was halfway unbuttoned, and I had my hands up her dress. I started to kiss her neck, savoring each plot of skin. She put her hands on my shoulders, pushing me up a few inches.

"Jess…I," she gasped, "I never…"

I looked down into her blue eyes, understanding what she was trying to say. "I know."

She bit her lip, but went on. "Will it hurt?"

"No, I won't let it," she looked scared. "You can hold my hand if you get scared."

She laughed but, a minute later, her fingers intertwined with mine.

After, we lay on the bed, with my head resting on her chest. She looked up at me and smiled. "What?" I asked. She blushed.

"How was it?" I asked her.

More blushing. "I liked it," she assured me. I laughed, resting my chin below her collar bone, so that I could look at her. She raised her hands up to the sides of my face, brushing bits of hair behind my ears.

"Hey," I remembered, leaning over the side of the bed, shuffling through my bag, where I had hidden her bracelet. I pulled it out, and shyly held it between my hands, taking back to my original spot. "I have something for you."

"Aw, you didn't have to."

"Huh," I joked, "and I thought it was an obligation thing."

I pulled it out of the box, slightly embarrassed, I had never bought a girl anything before. "It's just something I saw," I mumbled. "You know, I saw it and thought of you and how you might like it…" I rambled on.

She held out her wrist for me, and I awkwardly put it on her.

She interrupted my ramblings with her lips on mine. "I love it," she breathed.

She kissed my forehead, and we fell asleep.


	8. Names

AN: Thanks for all the reviews, I really love you guys. I'll be sitting at school, in a free period, updating, and I'll read you reviews, getting this crazy smile on my face. Really, all my friends laugh at me. They think I'm out of my mind.

It had been a week since that fateful night. We had done it again only once since then. Yeah, we enjoyed it, we are human, but it wasn't the focal point of our relationship.

We sat on the window seat, reading. It was raining, once again. Rory got up, to go to the drink machine.

"Do you want anything?" She asked me.

"Yeah," I looked up at her, "A ding-dong."

"Dirty," she sneered.

I laughed, "Just get me a coke or something.

She came back, a few minutes later with a coke and an orange soda. She handed me the coke, but didn't come sit down. I looked up at her.

"Jess, do you know what day it is?"

I didn't know what she was talking about. "Um…" I stuttered.

"Jess, it's the nineteenth. Of June. It's the nineteenth of June." She was getting worked up.

Realization washed over me. The Dragonfly was opening in about a week. Rory needed to be home, with her mom.

"Wow, you learn something new everyday." I paused, stroking my chin in false confusion, "Gee, I wonder what it'll be tomorrow?"

"Jess, I need to go home."

By now I had given up trying to read. I stuck my mark back in the book, casting it aside. I flipped it towards the wall, but it fell of the seat with a thud. "Home?" I asked.

"Yes, home, Star's Hollow. My home," she explained, as if to a child.

"Star's Hollow?"

"Jess!"

"Okay, Okay," I gave in, "Yes, I know home, Star's Hollow. I remember the place."

"So…" she asked.

"So," I started, knowing what I should say, "when do you want to leave?"

She made a squeally sound, and started walking toward me. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Jess. I love you, love you, l-o-v-e you!" She now stood right in front of me. I sat up straight. She tuned to start packing, but I moved first. I grabbed her hips, and pulled them down so that she was sitting on my lap.

"Really?" I asked. "Just how thankful are you?"

She smirked, kissing my lips. She pulled away and began to kiss and bite my neck, pinching it as she went a long.

I went on, "Because, as we all know, there is thankful, and then there is _thankful_. How thankful would you say you are?"

She went on, but stopped, touching her lips to my neck, so that I could feel her lips form every word on my neck. "Jess, now, I'm doing some of my best work here, and you're talking right through it."

I just smiled, pulling her closer to me.

"Je-es?"

I awoke the next morning to Rory sitting on the bed, legs tucked under her, fully clothed, bouncing up and down.

She shook me until my eyes popped open, and I pushed her down, so that her head hit the pillow next to mine. "Don't you ever sleep?" I asked.

She bounced back up, like a cat toy, and continued to shake me. She looked at me like I was crazy. "Nosiree-bob. Not today. Today is a wonderful day," she started, finally hopping off the bed, if only to pull back the blinds. "it's isn't raining or anything, a perfect day for driving, with the top down, duh."

"What time is it?" I moaned.

"Seven-thirty. What other time would it be?"

Ignoring the last part, I went on, "How many cups have you had?"

"Only one!"

"Plus?" I asked.

"Seven, but they don't count because I added sugar."

"Eight!" I was surprised. "How long have you been up? How can you have had time to drink eight cups of coffee?"

"Only three hours, not that long." She went on, ignoring the look of astonishment. "Look, we're all packed, all out stuff is in the car, all we have to do is check out." I looked at her, disbelievingly. "What?" she asked, "I laid out some clothes for you first.

I jumped out of the bed, cocking one eyebrow. "You did what?"

"Well I had to put everything else in the car," she explained.

I sighed, pulling on the clothes she had left for me. I went into the bathroom, and she yelled after me. "Five minutes!"

I came out the bathroom, opened the door for her, and followed her out.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"Look Jess! Look, the sign."

"Welcome to Star's Hollow," I read.

Six days had passed since we left San Francisco. We had taken it a little slowly on the way back. We spent a day in New York, though not really on the way back, remembering the day Rory skipped school to come see me.

Now we pulled up in front of Luke's. I swallowed hard, nervous. She covered my hand with hers. "Come on," she whispered, opening her door.

We walked in, hands still entangled, and the place went silent. Patty picked up her cell phone, raising it to her ear, but Babette pushed it back down, mouth hanging open. Lorelei, sitting at the counter, back to the door, was the only one who hadn't noticed us, that is, until she saw Luke's face.

"Luke?" she asked.

Luke's face was frozen in a look of shock and anxiety. "Jess…" he started.

Lorelei perked up. "Jess?" she asked, spinning around on her stool. "Rory!" she yelped, jumping.

"Mom," Rory beamed, momentarily letting me go to hug her mother. She let go, and Rory stood back next to me again, alleviating my uneasiness.

"Luke," I said, staring at him. "Lorelei," I nodded.

"Kidnapper," she scowled. I felt like something inside of me was about to explode, expanding beyond the limits of my flesh, but then she cracked a smile, and even laughed a little. "Hello Jess."

There was a long awkward silence, in which everyone remained, staring at us. Finally, Rory spoke up. "Um, Mom, Luke, could we, me and Jess, possibly talk to you, um, upstairs," she asked, motioning to the gawking crowd.

"Oh, uh, yeah," Luke nodded motioning up the stairs. He paused, "Caesar?"

"Got it," Caesar yelled back.

We sat upstairs, in the apartment. Luke sat on a chair, opposite the sofa, on which me and Rory sat, next to Lorelei.

"He showed up at my dorm," Rory explained. Luke nodded. "We went to San Francisco," she went on.

"I knew that," he said.

I spoke up, "We came back for the opening," I said to them both, "like we promised."

"We see," Lorelei noted.

Another awkward silence. Luke sighed, "It's nice to have you back, Jess." And the tension was broken.

We all got up, Luke and Lorelei started to walk towards the door. Lorelei turned towards us, "Rory, you said it was _me_ time, remember?"

"I know," Rory said cutely. "Can I say goodbye?" They went down.

"I kind of promised her that I would hang out with her once we got back," Rory explained.

"I know," I told her, pulling her towards me, "I was there."

"Right…" she lost her train of though as I leaned in to kiss her. She pulled away. "I got to go," she said, kissing me again. "I'll try to see if I can get us a room together at the opening."

I nodded as we went downstairs. I went behind the counter to help Luke, and Rory joined Lorelei.

"Bye Luke," Lorelei called, as they walked out the door. "Jess."

"So Mom," I heard Rory say before the it shut, "Let's cram a month of movies into one night okay?"

Lorelei put her arm around Rory's shoulder, beaming. "You _are_ my kid."

I couldn't help but smirk.

"What?" Luke came up behind me.

"Nothing."

Three hours later, sat at the diner, book in hand, about to start closing up. Right as I began to walk over to lock the door, Patty walked in.

I sighed, pulling out the order pad. "Welcome to Luke's, how may I help you?" I said with fake enthusiasm.

"Jess, nice to see you back in town," Patty said with cheap allure. "But I do have one question. What exactly are your intentions?"

"I'm sorry," I said, continuing on with my act, "but I'm afraid we're all out of that. Maybe you'd like a piece of pie, maybe some iced tea. We've got Lemon."

"Well okay then, be like that," she said, turning around to leave. "Don't screw it up," she teased. I shuddered when she left, and hurried to lock the door.

I locked up, and went upstairs. Luke was already up there, shuffling some papers at his desk. I stopped behind him and cleared my throat. "Um…Luke?"

He answered, without turning around, for which I was extremely grateful; it made what I had to say easier. "Yeah Jess?"

I breathed out through my news, trying to settle my nerves. "Thanks. For everything, for the book, for letting me stay here…again. And…I'm sorry. For everything…that I did." I paused; there was silence. "I know I messed everything up, not just wit her, I'm trying to fix it."

There was a long pause. "Don't worry about it."

I went back to my 'room' and went laid down with a book.


	9. She's a lady

AN: Yes, I know. More LL. I suck. I do. You wouldn't believe it. I NEED LL! Oh and thank you lots for the reviews! It's almost the best part. Oh, and, for all meaning and purpose of this chapter, Jess never saw Rory on the night of her Debutante. He never knew she came out.

"Mom," Rory, started in a firm voice, "I am tired of watching Gladiator. Isn't there perhaps another movie you would like?" Lorelei pondered the thought a bit before Rory spoke up again. "I know there are other movies." Rory sighed; getting up to look thought their movie collection. She crouched down on the floor. "Ok, what about Holy Grail?"

Lorelei shook her head.

"Clueless."

Again.

"Sixteen Candles?"

Once again.

"Saved?"

A third time.

"Mom!"

"Okay, okay," Lorelei gave in, "Are you down with the G-O-D?"

Rory sneered, "Please, have we _ever_ been?"

Lorelei laughed as Rory slid the DVD.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Two hours later, Rory and Lorelei sat on the sofa.

"You know what I don't get about that movie?" Lorelei asked.

"Huh?"

"How can Jena Malone have been pregnant for nearly nine months without anyone ever knowing?"

"Yeah, it is a little weird," Rory agreed.

"I can' even imagine keeping a secret that big," Lorelei went on. Rory just nodded. "I mean, we've never had a secret _that_ big before."

Rory sighed. "Mom?" Rory started, "Is there something you want to ask me?"

"Nope, nope," she paused, considering her next words, then, slowly, "Is there anything you want to tell me?"

Rory sighed again. She knew she would have to tell her mother eventually. It had to come out sometime. Better now. "Mom, while me and Jess were gone….we…uh…"

Lorelei interrupted. "Yeah, I figured."

Rory sat up, tucking her legs under her to face her mother. "You did? How?"

Lorelei sighed, "Well, before he, you know, you said that something might happen." She paused. "I just figured, since it's the same guy and all, and your older, and alone, and he had changed, something might happen."

"Are you mad?"

"No. You were….safe?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course," Rory rambled. Lorelei nodded. "You don't hate him do you?"

"No," Lorelei dismissed the question with a wave of her hand. "Someone had to do it."

Rory cringed. "Eww. Could you have been a little more vulgar please?" They laughed. "Mom, he really has changed."

"Yeah," she agreed. "It doesn't take a genius to see that that boy really cares about you."

"He does," Rory assured her.

"I really don't think he'll hurt you again," Lorelei went on.

"Neither does he," Rory informed her. Lorelei nodded again.

"So….we're good?" Rory asked.

"Yeah, yeah," Lorelei said, hugging her daughter, "Definitely."

There was a long pause, in which both women sat in solitary thought. Rory waited for her mother to speak first, which she did.

"So, what now?" Lorelei asked. "How about Rocky Road sundaes and Coyote Ugly?"

"I'll go get the ice cream," Rory called as she looked for her purse. "Do we have any cherries?"

"No, in fact, we're pretty much out of everything. Get the works."

"Right," Rory called, one last time, before the door closed.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I couldn't sleep. It was too quiet. I was used to sleeping the city, in some cheap apartment, with thin walls, and four other guys. Or, maybe, I just wasn't used to sleeping alone. Maybe I had gotten used to having Rory beside me. Whatever it was, I couldn't sleep. I decided to go out. It was a quarter to eleven; I didn't expect anyone to be out. It was, after all, Star's Hollow.

So I crept out of bed, careful not to wake Luke, and walked downstairs. My first thought was to head towards the bridge, thinking Rory might be there, but then recollected that she was with her mom. I was walking throughout the square; most of the shops were closed. I thought about going to the bookstore, but it was closed. Really, the only thing open was the Market. I wanted to know which Star's Hollowian was still up, so I headed over there.

Kirk was running the only checkout. When I opened the door, he looked up but ignored me. I weaved in and out of the aisles, but I didn't see anyone. Finally, I got to the last aisle, the frozen foods aisle, and there she was. Standing there, basked in the glow of the freezer lights, she looked like a florescent angel. I walked towards her, until I was standing right besides her, but she didn't notice me.

"Thirty flavors, I hear. Can't quite compete with Baskin's and Robin's, though." At my voice, she jumped.

Looking over, she realized it was me, and smiled. "Jeez, your like a dirty pop-up book."

I raised my eyebrows, "How dirty?"

Laughing, she leaned against me. "They're all out of Rocky Road," she explained.

"They have chocolate," I pointed out.

"Your point is…"

"You have nuts and marshmallows and chocolate fudge in your basket," I whispered, leaning into her, motioning towards the green basket she held, filled with various forms of sugar, chocolate, and cream filling.

"And?" she asked.

"Um, well, last time I remembered, Rocky Road, chocolate ice cream, marshmallows, nuts, and, if you buy the really fancy kind, chocolate fudge swirls."

She looked at me, an aghast look on her face. "Why, Jess, love, are you suggesting that we mix out own Rocky Road?"

"No," I replied, dripping with sarcasm.

"A lady never, ever mixes."

"Yeah, some lady," I muttered.

"I am so," she defended herself, "I have pictures to prove it!"

"Do you?"

"I do! I'll bring them tomorrow for breakfast," she insisted.

"So, how much time do you have?" I asked, pulling out the chocolate ice cream and handing it to her. She took it, sighing.

"A bit. Why are you out here?"

"Couldn't sleep," I explained. "It's too quiet," I declared, not caring to tell her the other reason.

"Bummer."

"I'd ask you why you're out, but I assume it's for an emergency ice cream run," I guessed.

"You assume correctly." By now, we had reached the check out. She paid for her stuff, and we walked out, not before my getting dirty looks from Kirk.

I held the door open for her, "I'll walk you home."

"You don't have to."

"I know, I want to," I paused, thinking, "I can't sleep anyway."

We walked. I carried her bags for her, and she held my hand in hers. There was a sense or serenity in the town at night. No one was awake, just us really; at least, no one else was out. It was just a feeling of freedom I guess. The air was filled with one of those summer fogs that come late at night. The air was heavy, thick, it wrapped us up together. Our skin moistened, just from the air. We reached her front sidewalk.

"This is my stop," she said, separating herself from me, so that we stood facing each other.

"Night," I said, pulling her towards me. She snaked her arm around the back of my head, pulling me closer. My lips moved on hers. She pulled away.

"Night," she breathed, her lips brushing mine. I handed her her bag, and she walked up the sidewalk towards her front door.

"I love you Rory Gilmore," I called after her.

She turned around to face me, her hand on the doorknob. "Ditto." She pushed open the door, disappearing from my sight.

"Mom…"

I started walking towards the Diner.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The next morning, Rory woke up to find a post it on her forehead, reading, "Call Inn." She got dressed and ready, and started to look for the pictures from, her Debutante ball. After having no luck, she called her mom.

"Dragonfly Inn, Lorelei speaking."

"Okay, so where are those pictures from my Coming Out?"

"Um," Lorelei thought aloud, "did you check the closet by the ex-boyfriend boxes?"

"Hold on," Rory walked over to the closet, opening she found her Dean box, Lorelei's Max box, and the Jess Box. She pulled out the Jess box, and a box next to it. "Yeah, I got them," she told her mother, "They were next to my Jess box."

"Great, okay. I can't do lunch today because I got in late, how about dinner at Luke's?"

"See you then."

"Okay, Bye, love you kid."

Rory sat on the ground a little while longer, shuffling through her Jess Box. She pulled out the now dried flower she had worn in her hair at Sookie's wedding, a picture of the dress she was going to wear to prom, the stuffed animal she had won that night at the Star's Hollow Winter Carnival, and a copy of _For Whom The Bell Tolls_ Jess had given her when she went up to the apartment, on the day of their first kiss. She put everything in the box, put the box on her bed, and, taking the box of pictures, left for Luke's.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I was wiping the counter when Rory walked in. She walked over to me, dropping a shoebox full of pictures in front of me.

"Coffee!"

"I poured her a cup, placing it in front of her. "What's this?" I asked, opening the box.

She took a long gulp of her coffee. "Me becoming a lady."

I pulled out the pictures. It was Rory all right, but not like I had ever seen her. She was wearing a white gown with a fluffy skirt. She had on these white gloves and a little tiara. She looked like a princess. "This can't be you."

"It is so," she defended. One picture shows her walking down some highly decorated stairs, arm and arm with a man, "My dad," she explained. Another picture showed her with her mom.

"You have a fan," I smirked.

"Okay, enough pictures for you," she said, grabbing the pictures and stuffing them back into the box. She sat down, putting the box on the next stool, and folded her hands on the counter. "Pancakes please!" she sang.

Luke came out.

"Hey, look," I said to Rory, then, to Luke, "Luke, Rory came out."

"Yeah. Uh huh."

"Yeah," I continued, "And in a minute we're going to go sky diving with Kirk."

Luke walked back and forth, refilling coffee. "Right. Be back in time to close up."

Rory joined in. "Oh yeah, Luke, we told Taylor he could decorate the place for the Fourth of July, so he'll be in here in about an hour."

"I'll be here if you need me," he called as he went into the storage room.

"Huh," I said, gazing after him.

"What's up with him?" Rory asked.

Rory finished her coffee, and I got up, grabbing her box. "Come on, let's go."

"What about the diner?"

"Silly girl," I teased, "We're going sky diving remember. We'll be back in time to close up."

"Right, right," she said, following me out.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

In the storeroom, Luke dialed the familiar numbers to the Inn. "Hi, Lorelei, it's Luke…"


	10. Mess Jariano

AN: No, you misunderstood, Lorelei and Luke aren't together yet. He is calling her for the first time. Okay, it was supposed to be a cliffhanger. So much for suspense…Ok, in the last chapter, everything Jess and Rory said to Luke, they were just fooling around with him. He wasn't paying attention to what they were saying…because he was preoccupied. With what I wonder...

oooooooo

At the Dragonfly, the phone rang. Lorelei, busy organizing some paper work, stretched over the stacks of manila folders and papers to reach the phone. "Dragonfly Inn, this is Lorelei speaking."

"Hi, Lorelei, it's Luke."

"Oh hey Luke."

"You sound surprised," he asked more than said, really.

"Just, you don't call here very often. Usually I'm calling you, you know, 'come fix this', 'help me with that,'" she explained.

"Oh, well, I could call more often if you wanted me to. I mean, I don't, but I could, if that's what you want. Because, you want-"

"Luke," she interrupted, "You called?"

"Right, well, I wanted to run something by you, tonight, when you come for dinner. I'm just assuming you'll come for dinner. You, uh, pretty much always do, so…. You could just come, and, maybe, not bring Rory? I'd preferred this stayed between you and me."

"Yeah, sure Luke," she paused. "Is everything okay?"

"Oh yeah, no," he assured her, "no it's nothing like that."

"Alright, so, see you at dinner."

"Right. Dinner, Bye." And he hung up. She looked at the phone, before hanging up, if not to pick it up again to dial Rory's number.

oooooooo

"So, Jess, where _are_ we going?"

I rolled my eyed up, making a pouty face, "Huh, I don't know." We walked top her car, and I opened the passenger-side door for her. "Get in," I instructed. She obliged. I went around the car, to get in on the driver's side. "Keys?" I asked. She handed them to me. I started the car, and we headed towards the highway.

"Wow," she said, "I must really love you to let you have complete control of my _car._"

"That you do," I told her.

She didn't speak again until we were already on the highway, half way to Hartford. "So, where are we going?"

"Last night, when I couldn't sleep, I came up with the best idea."

"Huh," she said, mockingly.

"So, the first stop in out tremendously quixotic evening is the Hartford mall, I informed her, pulling off the highway.

"You're going to a mall?"

"I hear that's where clothes are sold," I replied.

"Huh," she said, mocking me again.

"What? Didn't you know that?" I joked.

"Well I did, I didn't think you do, though."

"Ah ha. Ha ha," I replied sarcastically. Right then, her phone rang, and she pulled it out to answer it.

"Hey! Oh… Luke called you? Ooh, mysterious. Yeah, well, he's kind of vague but…. Aww. Alright, well, I'm on a mystery trip, so I guess it kind of all works out. Oooh, maybe they plan to seduce us…. Yeah, okay, just a little weird, I know. Yeah okay, so just tell him that Jess is with me and we'll be back around," she paused looking at me. I shrugged. "Late. Yeah, just late. Okay love you too. Have fun."

"We are free!" she announced, closing her phone and dropping it back into her purse.

"Really? How so?" I asked, getting out to open her door for her.

"Luke called my mom and he needs to talk to her tonight…alone," she finished, saying the last part with her eyebrows raised.

"Oh, mysterious."

"That's what I said," she told me, as we went into the main entrance. "Not so unlike someone else I know," said, obviously pointed at me. "I suggested to her that you are trying to seduce us."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it," I joked.

"I wouldn't put it past you."

"Me…no, but, Luke?" I questioned.

"Ehh."

We arrived in the center of the mall. There was a little fountain and a few chairs for lounging. I gave her some money. "Okay, you go buy something nice… a dress or something. You'll need something nice, but…um…fun. So, um, I'm not really good at this shopping thing, so I'll meet you here." I held the money out to her.

"Jess…" she started.

"No, take the money," I said putting it in her hand and closing it for her. "you can make it up to me later," I teased.

"Maybe I will," she teased back.

I sat down, book in hand, watching as she skipped off.

oooooooo

Forty minutes later, she came back with one big bag and another, smaller bag.

"So mystique man, what _are_ you intentions?" she asked, sitting next to me and taking away my book. She tuned to face me, but I stopped her, kissing her.

"I lost a tooth yesterday."

She looked at me like I was crazy, "Well, congratulations."

"Guess what to the Tooth Fairy left me?"

"A shiny new quarter?"

"No, they're not really that shiny," I answered in all honesty. I pulled out an envelope, handing it to her. She opened it up, peering in.

"Oh my God. Jess," she looked up at me, pulling the rectangles of paper out of the envelope. "Jess, these are tickets to see the Pixies. Tonight. At Madison Square Gardens."

I made an imitation shocked face, taking the tickets out of her hand to examine them. "I thought I ordered Shania Twain!"

She threw her arms around my neck, pulling me closer. I inhaled her aroma, a soapy smell filled with the sweetness of Nectar. She pulled away, looking into my eyes. "You can't afford this," she said.

I ran a hand through my hair. "I know a guy."

"Right…"

"Now," I started, "don't be jealous just because I know a guy and you don't."

"Oh I know a guy," she said. "A great, wonderful, spontaneous, romantic, sexy guy."

"Hmm, should I be jealous?" I wondered out loud. "What's this guy's name?"

"Mess Jariano."

"Nice," I said, wrapping my arms around her, kissing as we walked.

oooooooo

"He wants to meet with me?" Lorelei turned to Sookie, who was sitting on Lorelei's bed as she raided her closet. "What the hell does that even mean?"

"Honey, I think your blowing this way out of proportions," Sookie assured her.

"Why can't he just be…wait, what am I saying, it's Luke, of course he has to be vague," Lorelei was clearly panicking.

"Why don't you just wear something nice, but casual; so that it doesn't say 'Hey, I spent hours panicked in my closet'. Just pair of jeans and a cute shirt."

"Ooh," Lorelei pulled out a soft blue silk camisole and a black tie sweater. "This?"

"Great," Sookie confirmed, getting up to go.

"Oh, my hair!"

"Straight. Definently."

Lorelei walked up to Sookie, giving her a hug. "Thanks Sook. I don't know what I would do. I'll call you later."

"Have fun," Sookie called on her way out.

oooooooo

After the concert, Rory and I walked, hand in hand, down the streets of New York. It was a cool night, and she shivered. I wrapped my arms around her, and we kept walking.

"I love you."

"I know," I paused. "I love you. You know."

"I do." We kept walking. "The opening of the inn is in four days."

"It is," I agreed. "Did you get a chance to talk to your mom about the rooms yet?"

"No, not yet, I'm planning on springing on her last minute," she clarified.

We walked to the car and drove home.

oooooooo

Lorelei walked into the diner, warily sitting down at the counter. She had decided, earlier in the day, after the fiasco with Sookie, to pretend that it was a normal day; act surprised when he said whatever he was going to say. Only, it was different. The place was the same; there was a lull presently, but it was different. She couldn't just waltz in and call his name, begging him for coffee. This was different, unlike every other night. _He asked her to come alone._

"Coffee?" he asked her, holding a pot in front of her.

"Please," she sighed, and the night went one as any would. She ordered a burger, he warned her of the dangers of fries, and the crowd slimmed.

"So, Luke, did you call me here to watch me eat all alone."

Luke swallowed, walking over to her, "Nope."

"Didn't think so." She paused, waiting, but no other words came. "So…" she started, for him.

"Do you think we could, I don't know, maybe go see a movie or something sometime?"

"A…a m…movie," she stuttered. "Movie. Movie, yes, movies are fun. We could go see a movie. Movies are prime hang out spots."

He laughed a little, slightly nervous, and slightly amused by her ramblings. "Right. I'll call you then."

"You'll call me, yes," she paused, rashly picking up her stuff. "Well, I've got to…Rory."

"Right, Rory," he smirked as she rushed out the door.

00000000

We pulled up in front of her house. She looked out the window, but made no motion to get out of the car. In fact, she even moved closer to me, so that her head rested on my shoulder.

"Actually," I started, "the Tooth Fairy did leave me something shiny." I paused. "Well, two things actually."

I pulled out a two keys, displaying them in my palm, her gaze following my hand. She reached a hand out, picking one up to examine it. She lifted her head up, and I slipped an arm around her waist.

"What are they to?" she asked, looking at me.

"An apartment."

"Star's Hollow?" She asked, looking down, nervously.

"Nope." At my words, she drew a sharp in take of breath, letting it out slowly. Her body tensed, and she pulled away slightly, dropping the key back into my hand, but my grip on her didn't loosen. She sat their, uncomfortably.

"Oh."

"Don't you want to know where it is?" I asked her.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," she answered, looking past me, out the driver's window.

I placed my thumb on the left of her chin, gently repositioning her face to look at me. "New Haven," I whispered.

She looked up, into my eyes. "Really?" she whispered.

I nodded, "A block off of campus." A smile exploded on her face, and then, her body was on mine. Her arms pulling me into her, her lips all over, my lips, my ear, my neck. Finally she yielded, resting with her back against my stomach, her head on my shoulder. Her breath coming out in short, warm stints on my chin. Her left hand was wrapped up in mine.

With my free hand, I twirled one of the keys between my index and middle fingers. "Anyway, since I'll be in New Haven, and you'll be in New Haven, I thought maybe you could stand to be in New Haven together, at least some of the time, so I made you a key." I finished, handing it to her.

She took it, holding on to it like it was a treasure. "When?" she asked.

"Two weeks after the inn opens. I figure I could take the last months of summer to set up, you know move in my stuff, well, the little I have. Probably by some stuff to. Paint." I would have gone on, but she stopped me.

"I want to help."

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Absolutely. We can start the Monday after opening weekend." She hesitated, looking out the window. "I have to go," she realized, finally getting up to open the door.

I grabbed her hand, and she turned around to face me. I captured her lips with mine, briefly, but she broke away. "I love you," I told her.

"I know."

oooooooo

Rory walked in her house to find her mother sleeping peacefully, curled up in bed. She kissed her cheek, and went to her own room, picking up a Hemingway on the way to her bed.


	11. Imagine Her Imagining Us

For all of you who are wondering, New Haven is where Yale is. Jess did know about Rory's coming out. After the ball, Rory and Lorelei went into the diner in their big fluffy dresses and Jess was in there, mimicking Luke.

Oh. So, for a while, I got side tracked. I kind of forgot about the opening of the Dragonfly, but I'm back on track now, so no worries. Remember, sometimes I have no idea what I'm doing. Some days, I will have a visions of what I want to write, holding it in my head all day until I can have a few free moments to write it down. Other days, I sit down, writing entire chapters off the top of my head. All I can figure is, it's either total shit or it's great. Personally, I hope the latter.

Okay, I saw 10 Things I Hate About You for the first time this weekend, and I when I saw the part with the guidance counselor who was writing that romance novel, I was like, "Woah. Me." Oh, and, I am blown away by yall's reviews. Thank you so much. Anyway, Happy reading.

oooooooo

"Rory," her mom pushed her into her bed, letting go of her, making her mattress spring up. "Get up."

"Neuah," Rory grunted, swatting her mom away while burrowing deeper into her quilt.

"Luke's!"

"Mom, I'm sleeping," Rory informed her.

"Funny, last time I checked, sleeping people don't form coherent sentences." Rory, ignoring her mother's words, mentally willed Lorelei to go away. Lorelei, in reaction to her ignorance, pulled all the sheets off of Rory's bed. Walking over to her dresser, she began to throw clothes at her: a red sweater, a blue jean skirt, a pair of socks, and a pair of shoes.

Finally, Lorelei managed to rouse Lorelei. Now they stood in front of Luke's.

"Mom, you pulled me out of bed," Rory accused, "Please tell me we're going in, where the happy coffee is"

"I think I might be dating Luke," Lorelei blurted out.

"What?"

"Well, I went with him to his sister's wedding, and we danced, and then he asked me to a movie. I know that all of these things individually do not mean dating, but…together? They just might."

"Mom," Rory said, unbelievingly, "I think you're dating Luke. What would make you think this is undate-like?"

"Well," Lorelei started, slowly, thinking over each world, "Maybe he is just lonely, and, since I am currently one of the women sitting at home thinking, 'God, if only there was a man like Aragorn' he chose me."

"Mom, this is Luke. Luke's diner Luke. The town's Luke. If something happens, everyone is going to know," Rory explained to her mother.

"Way to spread the joy," Lorelei mumbled. "Listen, just tell me if you see anything different, weird."

They walked into the diner, which was especially busy today. Luke walked past them, coffee pot in tow, "Sit anywhere you want. I'll be there in a minute." He ran into the back, taking an order to Caesar. He came back, moments later, placing two mugs on the table they stood next to. Lorelei slung her purse over the back of the chair, then, sitting down, missed the chair. Luke helped her up, and, after much embarrassment, got her into her chair again. Rory sat down.

"That was a little weird," she commented.

"Freak."

oooooooo

Lorelei and Rory sat in their living room. Rory sat on the couch, looking over the guest list for the opening weekend. Lorelei sat on a chair, arranging people in rooms. An old Bangles CD was playing.

"Hey, Rory," Lorelei questioned, "Room six, you set it aside. Any particular reason?"

Rory put down the list, looking at her mother. "Oh, that. Well, I was kind of thinking, maybe Jess and I could have that room. I just, ever since we got back, we haven't really been able to spend as much time together."

"You and Jess sharing a room," Lorelei said aloud, as if trying the words on.

"Yeah, I mean, it wouldn't be a big deal or anything."

"I don't see why not. We have enough rooms. You did spend that whole month together in San Francisco, so…yeah."

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you," Rory shouted, getting up as she mauled her mother into a hug.

"Hey, if it makes you that happy, what could I say?"

Rory put down her list, jumping off the couch. "I'm going to tell Jess."

"Don't do anything dirty," Lorelei called as Rory left.

oooooooo

When Rory got to Luke's, Jess wasn't there.

"Hey Luke," Rory called, walking into the diner, "have you by any chance seen Jess?"

"He left a few hours ago, he should be back soon." Luke waited for Rory to say something, but she just stared into the distance. "Anything you want me to tell him?"

"No, no, that's okay. Just, um, ask him to come by when he gets back. It doesn't matter how late it is."

"Sure thing," Luke promised.

oooooooo

Rory was curled up on an arm chair in her room. It was just about midnight. She sat there, still waiting for me, I guess. She has just gotten up to change when I through the first pebble. First, she looked around her room, opening her bedroom door to see if Lorelei was knocking, which she wasn't. Then, she looked out the window, opening it.

"What are you doing?" she half laughed.

"Throwing pebbles at your window."

"My rooms on the ground floor," she offered. "You could have just knocked, you know."

"It's more Shakespearian like this," I explained.

"Well," she said, opening her window farther, making room for her to exit through. "Let's go Romeo." She hopped out. I stared at her. "What?"

"You're sneaking out," I snickered.

"Am not."

"Are too, I never thought you had it in you Gilmore," I pushed.

"I am nineteen. If I want to go, I can. Anyway, my mom would let me go if she were awake," she made clear.

I wrapped my arm around her shoulder; she grasped the hand that hung over her shoulder with hers, and we continued walking. We wandered towards the bridge, where else? We sat down, cross legged, facing each other. "So?" I asked.

"I talked to my mom," Rory spat out. "She agreed."

"How'd you manage that?" I asked.

"It really wasn't me. I just asked her and she said yes. She knew about the thing in San Francisco, and, I don't know. You should thank her. She would like that."

"San Francisco…. Just how much did you tell her about San Francisco?" I asked, eagerly.

She looked down, blushing. "Um, I kind of told her everything."

I could feel myself tensing up. I closed my eyes, letting out a long breath. Rory moved so that she was closer to me, her hand on my shoulder.

"Come on Jess, you know I had to tell her. You had to have known that I was going to tell her," she cried.

"It's fine. I understand, you had to tell her. It's just," I stopped sighing. "It's going to be really weird from now on. I mean… imagine how weird it must have been for her. Seeing me everyday, having to look me in the face, knowing that I deflowered her baby girl."

"Eww," she interrupted.

"What?"

"When you say deflowered it makes it sound gross."

I laughed. "Seriously, I mean eww…. Imagine her picturing us… you know."

"Okay, new subject please, "Rory waved her hand.

"So, tomorrow's the big day, huh?"

"Yep," Rory answered happily. "She's so excited. I'm so proud of her."

"You sound like her mother," Jess remarked.

"Yeah well," she answered, pulling me up, "Someone has to make sure she still has all her fingers before she goes to bed every night."

I laughed. "You better get home."

"Yeah," she groaned, as I guided her back to her room, helping her through her window.

"I'll see you tomorrow night," I called to her suggestively.

"I bet you will," she called back.

00000000

It was five in the morning on the day of the opening. Lorelei sat on the stoop of Luke's, waiting for him to open. At exactly five-thirty, Luke unlocked the door. Lorelei jumped up, practically ramming into him on her way to the coffee.

"It's five o'clock in the morning," Luke informed her, starring at her warily.

"Good call Tic."

"And you're awake," he finished.

"So that's what you call this consciousness."

"So," he asked, getting her down a stool from the counter, "what's up?"

"What makes you think something's up? Just because I am up before you open does not mean something is necessarily up." He just stared at her blankly. "The inn is opening today," she explained.

"Ah. Scared?"

"Not scared," she defended, "I prefer the term apprehensive, for your information."

"So, how scared are you?"

"Deathly," she admitted. "I'm guessing this is the part where I have to jump in?"

"That's right."

"Okay, well, I got to go. I'm planning on annoying Rory until nine," she said, getting up. "Thanks for your help."

"No problem."

She paused, halfway to the door, turning. "You'll be there right?"

"Wouldn't miss it."

She turned, smiling, and exited the diner.

oooooooo

It was five-thirty, staff was bustling around the inn, Sookie was 'paper bagging it' as Rory had referred to it, and Lorelei was trying her best to remain composed. I had just gotten to the inn. As the owner's daughter's boyfriend, I was asked to be there a half hour early.

"Lorelei," I said, remembering Rory's advice from last night, "I, uh, just wanted to thank you for the room."

"Aw, no problem Jess. You changed."

I nodded, walking back to Rory.

Around five-fifty, Rory left me, to stand by her mom. "Time to greet the guests," Lorelei had announced. I, not being a town favorite, had slunk up to our room, attempting to stay out of the way.

I watched from the top of the stairs. Lorelei and Rory stood, side my side, in front of the entrance doors, greeting people. After a few minutes, Lorelei retreated back to the desk, starting to check people in. Rory, noticing me for the first time, flashed me a tense smile before going to check on Sookie.


	12. Lorelei's Pushing

AN: Yes, I am planning on bringing Dean in sometimes soon. If not this chapter, then the next. Also, Marty isn't coming in, well, until Rory goes back to Yale. So, not for a while. Anyway, I hate Logan. I think he is a rich, meaner version of Dean. So, no Logan.

Oh, sorry, but I'm not going to change anything about the Luke/Lorelei bit in this episode. I really like it the way it is.

oooooooo

"Reservation for Danes, please," he said, sauntering up to the desk.

"Luke." Lorelei said, nervous and excited at the same time. "I have your key right," she said, elongating the word as she bent down to retrieve the key from under the desk, hitting her head on the way back up, "here," she finished, handing it to him.

"Are you alright?" he asked, reaching out a hand to steady her.

"Yes, I've actually done that three times already, one, two, three; thrice!" she rambled.

"Uh huh," he nodded, "So, I'm going to head up. See you later."

oooooooo

Rory and I stood in the doorway leading to the hall by the stairs.

"It was really great what you said to my mom. Very prince-charming of you," Rory informed me.

"Yes, well, that is my reputation."

She laughed. I love when she laughs; much more when I make her laugh. "You know," she said, pulling herself closer to my chest, "I think she's beginning to like you." I wrapped my arms around her waist.

"I don't know about that," I insisted. "I mean, yes, I did come back and charm your brains out, but, I am still that same guy who blew off her 'Welcome to Star's Hollow' dinner right in front of her."

"Bad seeds can create good fruit."

"I'm not sure that's quite the way it works," I informed her, "Maybe I'm just like wine."

"Or cheese," she added.

We turned, walking down the hall, my arm still around her waist. "So, what now?" I asked.

"Well, dinner's at seven seven-thirty." She looked down, pulling writs up to check my watch. "It's only six-forty five."

"Well, we could-" I started, but was interrupted.

"Rory!" Lorelei called. She ran over to us, a panic look on her eyes. "Rory, I forgot the CD's."

"Why do we need CD's?" I asked.

"In case," she informed me, "The guests want to listen to music in their rooms." Then, to Rory, "Go home and get some okay?"

"Yeah, sure," she tuned to leave, pulling me with her.

"Be back by dinner," she called after us.

"Go get your mother some CD's," I finished. Rory laughed again, running towards her house.

oooooooo

Rory and I sat on her bed, picking through her CD's.

"Rory, as much as I love the Bjork, I really don't think anyone else in Star's Hollow would be fond of her," I tried to convince her.

"Fine," she sighed, "Okay, so what about the Bangles? Do you think Taylor will object to them?"

"No, not at all."

She nodded in approval, dropping it into a box on the floor half filled with CD's, slipping in another CD in the process.

"I saw that," I informed her, reaching for the box. She jumped up standing over it.

"Saw what?" Rory asked, innocently.

"That Clash CD."

"What Clash CD?"

"Rory," I laughed, "Come on, give me the CD. You know they won't like it."

"Well, I'll convert them."

"Rory," I muttered, reaching around her. She stopped me, her hands on my chest.

"Jess," she murmured, before her lips collided with mine. A minute later, I broke the kiss, so that my lips moved on hers.

"Cheater." But I hardly got the word out, because once again, she had eliminated the area between us. "Well," I muttered, stumbling backwards onto the bed. She was kissing my ear now, sucking on it lightly. I suspended a moan. "If it really means that much to you."

So that's how we were, here hands tugging at my collar, when the doorbell rang. She rolled out from under me, not without a groan of complaint from me. "Oh grow up," she muttered, leaving the room. I pulled myself up so that my back was against the wall, straightening out my shirt. I heard the door open, and then I heard voices. Dean.

"Oh, hey….Dean," she said, as I happily noticed, not too enthusiastically.

"Rory, I, uh, wanted to talk to you about….something," he stumbled.

"Um, you know what, I don't think now is actually the best time," she stated.

"Well, your mom said that you weren't at the inn, so I just figured you were here," he went on, completely ignoring her. "Why aren't you at the inn?" he asked.

"I'm just running an errand. And I actually should be finishing up so…" she trailed off, but he didn't take the hint. I heard footsteps on the wooden floor, getting closer. Then I heard faster ones following them. "Hey, Dean, you shouldn't be here. You should go home."

"Hey, is you room still the…" he stopped, poking his head in, seeing me, sitting on her bed, one knee bent up with my elbow resting on it. "Jess…"

"You're not her boyfriend anymore," I declared, getting up off the bed to stand next to her, taking her hand in mine to let her know I wasn't mad. "I am." He just glared at me. "In fact, I distinctly remember _you_ breaking up with _her, _so you really don't have a right to his whole 'jealous ex' bit."

"You don't belong here," he spat at me.

"Really," I asked, "because, the way I see it, was invited, and you weren't," I pointed out.

Something in his face twitched. "You don't belong with her," he said, "it would be better for everyone if you just left now instead of drawing this whole thing out any longer."

"Dean. Leave," Rory said, firmly. "You can't just come into-" but she was caught off, again, by him.

"I mean, do you even consider anyone else's feelings? Or is it just all about you?"

"I don't want to fight you, Dean," I said, trying my best to stay calm. Rory squeezed my hand, moving closer to me.

"Well, that's a first," he muttered.

"Dean, you need to go away now. We broke up, do you remember that? Did you think we were going to be together forever? I was only fifteen when we started dating. You're married now. Where is Lindsay? Isn't she your wife?" Rory was yelling now. I had never heard her yell before. "It's not fair what your doing to me. Or to Jess. Or to Lindsay. This isn't what _we _deserve."

"Fine," he spat, storming out of her room, slamming the kitchen door one the way out.

As soon as that door slammed, Rory collapsed, into me crying. "Shh. Rory it's okay. He's a jerk. Don't worry about it." That's what I said, but I really didn't know what to do. So there we sat, on the floor in her room; she sat in my lap, and I held her, stroking her hair while she shook, sobs racking out of her small frame.

oooooooo

"Hey, Babette, who is that?" Luke asked, pointing towards a man sitting in the Lobby of the inn, drawing Lorelei's attentions.

"Oh, that's Jason Stiles, Lorelei's ex-boyfriend. I didn't think they had gotten back together, but I could check with Patty. Sometimes she gets news sooner than I do; something about her phone picking up interference of other people's conversations. Location's everything."

Luke got up, walking over to Jason. "Hi"

"Hi, are you a friend of Lorelei's? I'm her boyfriend," Jason stated, as if it were true.

"I, uh, I thought you guys broke up," Luke asked.

"Ah, well, that, I prefer to call it a 'temporary break'"

"Oh, well, um. Okay, the best of luck with that," Luke muttered, before storming away, looking for Lorelei.

"Hey," she said, rounding a corner, nearly bumping into her. "Last one up."

"Not quite the last," he said, gruffly, motioning towards Jason.

Lorelei looked over Luke's shoulder, at Jason, flinching.

"I'm not a mysterious man, am I?" he asked, abruptly.

"Well, the wardrobe's a bit of a head-scratcher," she started, but was interrupted.

"I thought my intentions were clear."

"Luke, they," he interrupted her again.

"I invited to you to Liz' wedding, I asked you to a movie, I even brought you flowers. Do you know how many times I've brought people flowers? None! Fairly easy statistic to keep track of," his voice was rising.

"Luke…"

"I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. This is what the damn book said to do."

"What book?" she asked, but he stormed off outside. She followed him.

"Well what about at Liz' wedding? I thought there was a moment?" he asked.

"There was a moment," she confirmed, her voice barely audible.

He looked at her, after a while, moving closer to her. She stepped back. "What are you doing?"

"Would you just hold still?" And he kissed her. Sure, at first, it was weird. _This was Luke. Luke! This is what it is like to kiss Luke. Wow, I'm kissing Luke. This is nice. _She relaxed. Just as she went to put her arm around his neck, he pulled away, looking down. She leaned towards him.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Would you just hold still?" she whispered. _I'm kissing Lorelei Gilmore. It's so…right. I kissed her. She kissed me. It works. The damn book really worked. Huh. _She pulled away, staring at a spot a few inched above his shoulder.

At the same time, they reached for each other. Pulling themselves into the other's embrace.

oooooooo

"You are the best boyfriend in the whole world," she said, hugging his chest as they walked back to the inn.

"At least I am now," I added. I readjusted the box on CD's under one arm, so that I could wrap my other one around Rory.

She stopped, turning towards me so that she stood in front of me. "I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't of been there," she admitted slowly, quietly, almost on the brink of tears, again.

"Hey," I said, putting the box down to pull her into me, "Hey, don't worry about that. That didn't happen. That's never going to happen."

She buried her face in my neck, tightening her arms around me.

"You think I'm ever letting you go again Gilmore? Your stuck with me for life, baby."

She laughed, her head bobbing against my neck. I rubbed her back, and we continued walking. Silence overwhelmed us.

"Good," she said, after a while, "because I don't know what I would do if you ever left again."

I hugged her tighter, and we walked towards the inn.

We approached the inn, and we saw two people on the porch. Kissing. Luke and Lorelei. On the porch. Kissing. I stopped, staring ahead at them. Rory looked up, due to my abrupt halt. Following my gaze towards the front porch. She stopped, seeing them. "Oh my God," she muttered.

That's when we heard it. There was a loud scream, and Kirk came hurtling out of the doors right behind Luke and Lorelei, covering himself with a pillow. Luke tore himself away from Lorelei, running after Kirk. "Oh my God," she laughed.

I stood next to her, Jaw dropped. "Wow," I breathed.

"The things I could say," she rambled. "Mom. Luke. Kissing. Naked Kirk. Luke chasing naked Kirk. Mom kissing Luke," she paused, thinking. "Mom kissing Luke!" she yelled.

Which, of course, Lorelei heard, and she started walking over to us. "You kissed Luke," Rory gawked.

"You kissed Jess," she stated.

"He's my boyfriend," Rory countered.

"Yeah, well, he wasn't until you kissed him at Sookie's wedding," she went on.

There was a significant pause, but Rory broke it. "So you want Luke to be your boyfriend?"

"I don't know…. Can we talk about this later?" she asked, pointedly motioning towards me.

"Mom," Rory began.

"Just go up Rory, go up with Jess. We'll talk about this tomorrow," she emphasized the last word.

"Wow Lorelei," I spoke up for the first time, "You're practically pushing her on me," I smirked.

"Yeah, well, you grow on me, kid."

"Okay, night mom," Rory said, pulling me towards the inn. "We'll leave the box with Sookie."

"Night," Lorelei called.

00000000

We were in our hotel room.

Rory sat on the edge of the bed, wearing a pair of shorts and a t shirt. I was undressing, just pulling my shirt over my head, when I noticed her staring at me. I stopped, pulling it back down.

"You stopped," she whined.

I laughed, moving to sit next to her. "It's not a strip show, you know."

"Yeah," she asked, more than said, really, while wrapping her arms around my neck. I pulled her into me, holding her like I was carrying her, with one arm under her knees, and the other on her back. She pulled her face closer to mine, until we were only an inch or so apart.

"Yeah," I breathed, tickling her lips with mine. I pulled away, studying her face, "You are so beautiful," I said, tickling her legs with my fingers

"Oh believe me," she laughed jokingly, "I know." She batted her eyelashes dramatically.

"See," I said, kissing around her face, presently, her eyes, "this is when," I paused kissing her cheeks and chin, "you tell me," I stopped, kissing all around her mouth, "just how pretty I am," I finally finished. She placed her hands on either side of my face, pulling it down to meet her lips.

"You're not exactly freakishly deformed," she informed.

I laughed into her mouth, my breath mixing with hers, "Thanks," I breathed into her mouth, pulling her down with me. She reached for my belt buckle, resting her head in the crook of my neck. "Someone missed me," I joked.

She blushed but continued. "Well, if you don't want to…" she began.

"Oh that's quite all right," I chuckled, pulling on her shirt. She, too, pulled my shirt over my head. "If you insist," I went on. She placed little kisses down my chest, rubbing her hands up and down my sides. "Just because, you know-"

She interrupted me, grabbing my face, pulling it to meet hers. She moaned into me. I rolled over, so I was on top of her. I kissed down her neck, to her shoulder, to her chest.

"Huh," she half moaned, half whispered.

I smirked.


	13. Only 228 Miles?

Sorry, I've been busy. I had to spend all day at some Tennis game, and I got a bad sunburn, and I rediscovered that all jocks are fags. Sorry if that offends you; maybe not all jocks, just the one at this tennis court. Anyway, I was making this to-do list, and it has about 15 things on it….so…yeah. Anyway, keep reviewing!

So, sorry about this, but I don't know what happened directly after the Season 4 Finally, so I'm making it up. Hope it fits.

Also, If you have any input on where you would like to see this story going, It'd be more than welcome.

So this chapter isn't really much, just a little Luke and Lorelei after thought and a lot of Jess and Rory fluff. I really don't know how I got 10 pages out of this.

oooooooo

We lay in bed, with a clash CD on low in the background. Rory rested her head on my shoulder, playing with my the hair in my face.

"What happened to your crazy hair?" she asked.

I laughed, remembering back to the night of the winter carnival. _Do you have anything you want to tell me Rory? _I had asked her, expecting her having planned going to the fair with Dean. _I like your crazy hair._

"I grew it out," I answered, running my fingers through her hair.

"Huh," she breathed, "so that's what you call it. I kind of miss it."

"My crazy hair?" I asked.

"Yeah. I mean, it definitely wouldn't suit you now, too boyish, but I just miss it," she explained.

"Right, because I am a manly man," I mocked.

She laughed into my chest. "I'm bored," she whined.

I laughed, hugging her tighter. She put her fists to my chest, pushing me away slightly. "Let's go," she said, sliding out of bed. I rolled over, watching her, amused. I walked up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist.

"Where do you want to go?" I whispered into her ear.

She turned around in my arms, wrapping her arms around my neck. "Let's do something no one would expect us to do," she gushed, pulling a t-shirt over her head.

I stumbled around the room, looking for my pants, pulling them on, upon finding them. Rory threw me a t-shirt, and I pulled it on too. She pulled on her shorts and a pair of flip-flops, walking toward me.

"Knocking on random doors, running away," I offered.

"Hmm," she considered, "No, too juvenile."

"Right, we are definitely not juvenile. No sir, not us," I agreed, "Well, we could slip anonymous notes under Kirk's door."

"That might get old," she thought, "Breaking into the kitchen, ice cream at the bridge," she offered, walking down the hall.

"With cones?" I asked, pulling her into me.

"With cones," she confirmed, dragging me with her as she skipped down the hall.

oooooooo

Lorelei sat up in bed, in her room in the inn, talking to Sookie, "It went well, didn't it?"

"It did," Sookie agreed, from her room in the inn.

"Babette and Patty really liked the robes," Lorelei gushed.

"I told you yellow was the way to go," Sookie commented.

There was a pause, at last which was broken by Sookie, "So, you and Lu-"

"Oh God, don't say even say it," Lorelei sighed.

"But it was on the porch, for everyone to see!"

"Rory was right," Lorelei cried, burying her face under her sheets in her room.

"About what?" Sookie laughed over the phone.

"She looked at me and said, 'Mom, this is Luke, the town's Luke, if something happens, everyone is going to know.'"

"She said that?" Sookie asked.

"Yes, and I mocked her, but she was right, as usual,' Lorelei sighed again.

"Well do you regret it?" Sookie had verbalized the concern of a few other people.

"Regret it?" Lorelei dodged.

"Yes," Sookie persisted, "Do you regret kissing Luke Danes."

"Um, no… I mean, I don't think...no," Lorelei rambled.

"Well," Sookie started.

"But what if everything changes?" Lorelei cried.

"Honey, of course everything's going to change. You can't just go around making out with your friends, you know."

"Neuah. Well, okay, I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow bright and early for breakfast," Lorelei said before hanging up.

She lay down in her bed, facing the ceiling, sheets pulled up to her chin. "Oh God," she muttered to herself, "I kissed Luke." She pulled the sheets over her head, sighing.

oooooooo

Across the hall, five doors down, Luke sat in a similar predicament, except that he was venting. Luke Danes didn't vent. He did did sit on his bed, though, furiously muttering under his breath. "I kissed Lorelei, Lorelei Gilmore. Kissed Lorelei. Gilmore. Lorelei Gilmore. Kissed."

Luke, like Jess and Rory, was consume by, not only his own happenings, but also the entire happenings of the night. Luke, Lorelei, kissing. Kirk, running, naked, yelling. Luke, chasing, Kirk, naked. Rory, Jess, same room. Luke didn't even know about all of the night's happenings. There was no group of words running through his brain including Rory, Jess, Dean, crying, yelling, Rory crying. If those words had been in his head, Luke wouldn't be sitting here, in his hotel room, muttering. Luke would be at Dean's house, beating him senseless. Okay, well, at least yelling his brains out.

Luke laid back, on his bed, staring at the ceiling. "Oh God," he muttered, covering his face with his hands.

oooooooo

Rory and I stumbled into the kitchen, laughing.

"Oww," she yelped, running into the corner of the island. I stumbled towards her, grabbed her hand, and proceeded to feel along the wall for the light switch.

"Wait," she said, yanking her hand away from me. "You can't turn on the lights. Someone will see us."

"No one will see us," I laughed, taking back her hand, "This is Star's Hollow. Light's out is at eleven. They've all been asleep for at least forty minutes."

"No," she whined, dragging me in what was supposed to be the direction of the freezer, "It will make it less stealthy. I wont be able to feel like I've done something bad."

I stopped, twirling her into me so that our chests were pressed together. "Well then," I smirked, "Maybe we could just flip on the lights down here and go back upstairs."

"Well, maybe we will," she laughed, pulling me back towards the freezer, "after I get some ice cream cones."

"Just what do you expect us to use those for," I muttered suggestively.

She laughed, hitting my chest playfully.

oooooooo

We sat at the bridge, after much arguing, with a carton of double chocolate brownie chink swirl and a box of cones.

"Admit it," she said, licking the bottom of her cone, "It's always better in a cone."

"It's always better in a cone," I admitted. She leaned into me, smirking. "What?" I asked.

"'Where ever, Whatever' didn't turn out to be too far from Star's Hollow," she teased.

I sighed, wrapping my arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer. "Nope, not too far at all," I confirmed.

"Only 22.8 miles," she went on.

"Why, Rory, did you google that?" I laughed.

"Yeah, _I _did," she said, dripping with sarcasm.

Silence.

"I thought I was going to lose you," I confessed, "You were going to a big fancy school, and I was Mr. Failing Twelfth Grade."

"My, what a good job you did of getting over that fear," she smirked.

"I was stupid, okay?"

"Well at least you know it."

Silence.

"So I have a question," Rory informed me, "What's you job?"

"My job?"

"Yeah, the trip, the concert tickets, the dress, the dinners, the apartment, where _is_ all this money coming from?"

"I just do what I do best," I answered sheepishly.

"So I'm dating a prostitute," she cut in.

I looked at her, smirking, taken aback. Rory blushed. I rubbed her shoulders in an effort to relax her. "No, I actually got this job at a bookstore. It's not bad, really. It's small, so during slow hours, I just chill in the back, reading usually. The old guy that runs it, he's really laid back."

"Nice."

"Yeah, so that, and," I paused.

"And?" she asked, looking up at me.

"And I've kind of been writing a little bit on the side. Nothing major, just a story thing, like, not really too long…yet…but that's really non important," I looked down, reluctant.

"Jess," she cried, excited, taking my face in her hands, "That is big. That's huge."

"It's-"

"It's incredible," she shrieked, jumping up, having long finished the ice cream.

"Rory, calm down," I whispered, jumping up after her. She grabbed me, kissing me hard on the mouth. It was really an amazing kiss; passionate, loving, heated, and, well, just incredibly sexy all at the same time.

"Wow," I breathed, as we walked back to the inn.

"I love you," she said, leading me back to our room.

"I love you," I mimed. She laughed, but she knew I meant it.

"So Monday," she started, "Your apartment."

"Right, well I thought we'd start with, you know, I probably need to buy some stuff, like, maybe first, a bed."

"Oh," she said, "Well I was going to say a bookshelf, but okay."

I laughed as we neared our room, opening the door, ushered her inside, wrapping my arms around her.


	14. On The Wall

AN: Okay, so I'm skipping ahead a bit here, I know. Not much, maybe a week or so. Two weeks, tops. So, I'm not sure with Luke and Lorelei yet. If not this chapter, definitely next.

This chapter is going to be mostly, if not all, Jess and Rory. They're going to be setting up Jess' stuff and all.

oooooooo

"You ready to see it?" I asked Rory as I lead her by the hand through the hallway of my apartment building.

"Uh huh," she gushed, beaming at the thought of seeing my apartment. We had started the setting up a little late. Lorelei had panicked over Luke. Rory had helped her get it together. We had already bought a bed and a bookshelf and a dresser, but they had all been delivered to the apartment. She wasn't there when they got there.

"You need a sofa and a TV and a DVD player so we can watch movies," she explained.

"Alright," I nodded, making a note of it, as I led her to my door, stopping in front of it to pull out a key, opening up the door.

"Whoa," she breathed, laughing. I really didn't think it was that much. It had four rooms, a bedroom, a kitchen, a living room, and a bathroom. There were wood floors and a whitish-grayish wall color. "This is _your _apartment," she gushed.

"Well all I really have is what came with the place, the refrigerator, the stove, the oven, everything in the bathroom, so on. And then I bought the, uh, bed, there," I said, motioning to the mattress and box spring, sheetless, in the bedroom. "Um, over there I have a bookshelf," I said, motioning to the bookshelf in the living room. "I figure as soon as I get setup here I'll move out of Luke's. I can get all my stuff out of there, you know, bring it here," I went on.

She grabbed me, hugging me tight. "It's so exciting. Aren't you excited?"

"Yeah," I sighed. "You know me, always the rebel. I'm finally independent."

"Let's go."

"Where?" I asked, following her.

"Don't you want to paint it before you get any of your other stuff moved in?"

oooooooo

"No," I said forcefully, steering her away from the aisle.

"Why not?" Rory howled.

"Because I'm a guy. I have testosterone. Guy's with testosterone who date girls without testosterone do not paint the walls of their apartments rose," I explained.

"They would if they were in touch with there feminine side," she sang. "How about this?" she asked, holding up a green sample of paint.

"They don't even say rose," I said, stopping to examine her display. "Green?"

"Not just green, but 'Smoky Moss', a shade of forest green," she informed, imitating a very informative Taylor.

"So…you want to paint my apartment green?"

"Jess! People go through all the trouble to create this paint and give it ridiculously indescriptive names. The least you can do is use them," she told me.

"How the hell can moss even be smoky?" I asked.

She laughed, "That's so not the point."

"But you thought it was funny?" I asked, wrapping my arms around her.

"Jess!"

"Fine green it is," I said, grabbing buckets of paint and bringing it to the counter.

oooooooo

"Ok," I said, handing Rory a paintbrush, "Paint goes on the walls, not the floor, not the bed, not me, not you, only the walls. Got it?"

"Ooh, stern face," she mocked.

"Like this," I went on, demonstrating the painting process. I dipped my roller in the pan of paint, allowing the excess to drip off, touching it to the wall, and rolling it up and down. I put the roller back into the pan, stepping back to face Rory. "See, now, where is the paint?"

"On the wall," she replied, rolling her eyes.

"Right," I answered as she dipped her brush into the bucket.

oooooooo

Six hours later, we sat on the floor, admiring our work. "See," she said, leaning her back against my chest, "and I only got paint on the walls."

"Huh," I smirked.

"Fine, I got a little on you, but not much," she said, pouting her ruby lips. She turned around to look at me, and I bent my neck to meet her face, embracing her in an awkward kiss. She giggled, pulling away, and leaning her head in the crook of my neck.

"We should get out of here."

"Why?" she asked.

"Paint fumes."

"Ah," she sighed, getting up. She offered me a hand to help me up, which I accepted. We left, heading towards the car.

oooooooo

"So, have you told Luke yet?" Rory asked me as we pulled into Stars Hollow.

"Told Luke?"

"Jess…"

"No, I haven't told Luke," I sighed, parking behind the diner.

Silence. I opened the door, getting out. Rory followed me. "So when are you-"

"I don't know," I said roughly, walking in.

"Jess," Luke started, probably ready to prod me about my previous location, but I ignored him, heading upstairs.

"Luke," I acknowledged rudely.

"Jess?" Luke asked, concerned.

I continued to ignore him, pushing upstairs, pulling Rory with me.

"Jess," Rory called, pulling herself away from me as I stormed upstairs.

I spun around, abruptly, startling Luke, Rory, and a few people near me. "I'm moving," I blurted out, pausing only a moment before continuing upstairs. I paused at the top of the stairs, out of sight of everyone.

"Hey Rory, where's Mr. Cranky Pants?" I heard Lorelei ask, running into the diner.

"Luke? He's right over there," Rory answered.

"Hey," Luke defended.

"No I mean Jess, relax Diner Man. So where is he?"

"He, uh," Rory rambled, before falling at a loss of words. I went in the apartment, carefully closing the door.

oooooooo

"What the hell was that?" Luke yelled, slamming the apartment door behind him.

I focused on my book.

"You know, maybe that whole Bad Boy routine was cute when you were seventeen, but your all grown up now, you need to come out and say whatever it is you are going to say. I'm assuming you were going to say something," he paused, waiting for an answer. I didn't supply him with anything. "Of course you were going to say something, because you did just put on that very nice little show for everyone in the diner."

Silence.

"Jess."

I sighed, closing my book and tossing it to the floor. I refocused my attention to its new position, not meeting Luke's gaze. "I'm moving."

"That part I heard," he spat.

"I got an apartment in New Haven, okay?"

He was taken aback, I could tell. His head kind of popped up and his eyes widened. "Where did you get that kind of money?"

I rolled my eyes. "I got a job Luke. I was in California for about a year, you know. I didn't just lounge around all day."

"A job," he repeated.

"Yeah," I said, "Funny, I remember you being a big proponent of them."

"Well…good job. What do you do?"

I fought the smile spreading itself out on my face. "It's just this little thing at a bookstore. Nothing much. I've been saving up all my money, since…"

I trailed off, not wanting to bring up the sore subjects of Wal-Mart or highschool.

"Right," Luke said.

"Do you need any help?" I stared at him, he quickly went on. "I mean, not financially of course. Right. I know you wouldn't take any money. I mean, just that, I could help with moving in. I could build you something…a shelf, or, um something," he stammered.

"Nah, that's okay," I waved away his offer. "I've pretty much got everything under control, and, you know, Rory's helping, so…. But if I do need anything, I'll, uh, let you know."

"Alright. Good."

"So, uh, I'm going to go talk to Rory. I mean, I was kind back there," I muttered, making a move towards the door in an effort to end our not quite quaint talk.

oooooooo

I couldn't find her though. I had gone to her house, but Lorelei said she was gone, shooting me a contemptuous glare before closing the door. I circled back to Luke's, seeing if she had gone their looking for me, or just gotten hungry. I had checked the Gazebo, the market, the soda shop, the bookstore, Al's, I even went to Laine's house. Well, what used to be Laine's house. Apparently Laine moved out, moved in with her band.

"Laine live here no more," Mrs. Kim said forcefully, before slamming the door. I knocked again. The door swung open.

"Excuse me… Ma'am, would you mind telling me where Laine _does _live?" She looked at me scornfully, but had told me. I thanked her, and headed towards the house.

Laine's house was definitely not what I expected from a girl who had been raised in the way that Laine was raised. I knocked on the door. A scraggly guy with shaggy, shoulder-length blonde hair opened it.

"Yeah man?" he asked.

"Um," I hesitated, "Does Laine Kim live here?"

"Hold on," he said, then, calling over his shoulder to someone else in the house, "Brian! Laine?"

"I'm here; I'm here," I heard Laine call, her voice getting louder as her body emerged. "Who is it?"

"Some guy," the blonde said, moving out of the way, disappearing into the house.

Laine's face changed to one of shock when she saw me. "Jess?"

"Does your mother know you live with two guys?" I asked her.

"Um, no offense or anything," she stated, "But we don't really like each other….do we?"

"Is Rory here?" I asked, ignoring her question.

"No, I….uh," she trailed off. "Have you checked all the usual Rory spots?"

"Yeah, I," I paused, going through all the places she could go to, she would go to, "Oh," I said.

"Missed a spot?" Laine asked.

"Uh…yeah. Thanks," I called, already walking down the walk.

oooooooo

I found her at the bridge. She didn't have a book; an unusual look for Rory. She sat, barefooted, with one leg tucked under the other, which was skating, tantalizingly, on the water. Her eyes were unfocused, no doubt deep in thought.

"Laine lives with two guys," I interrupted her.

A smile twisted itself onto her slight features, but she did her best to straighten it out. "What makes you say that?"

"I was looking for you," I explained, sitting next to her. "I had to ask Mrs. Kim where Laine lived."

A small, nervous laugh fled from her lips. She turned to face me, playing with my hand, tracing it's outline on the wooden planks with her slender fingers.

"I talked to Luke, I admitted, staring intently at her. She turned my hand over, still not looking up, so that she could trace the lines on my palm.

"He was really good about it," I went on, "He was actually kind of proud of me." She stopped, still not looking up, but clearly listening intently. "Yeah, it was weird, it kind of made me feel….good. Happy."

Now she looked up, her eyes matching mine. "He was proud of you?"

I nodded.

"You liked it."

I nodded.

She smiled, scooting closer to me and kissing my cheek. I breathed a sigh of relief, wrapping my arm around her waist.

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

She paused, studying my face. I looked away. "It wasn't…"

I interrupted her, "It was."

She nodded, pulling me up with her.

"You know what your bed needs?" she asked as we walked back to her house.

"Huh?"

"Sheets," she stated, looking at me. "See, the way I see it at least, you could move into your apartment now. All you need is sheets."

"Sheets," I repeated, smirking.

oooooooo

I just wanted to tell you, that I really don't know what's going to happen next chapter. It might be crap. Read it though. Please.


	15. Marsellus Wallace

I know, I know. Okay, so, I didn't know how to tackle the whole "Luke Lorelei talk" so I'm evading it. Sorry. I know, I'm letting you down. I hope to make up for it later. Anyway, this is just a month or so in the future. Yale is starting up again.

oooooooo

"Mom, I'm fine, really," Rory persisted.

Lorelei stood in the doorway of Rory's dorm, I sat on the couch, trying to focus on a book, and Rory stood next to her mom, trying to get her to leave. Normally, Rory would never try to get Lorelei to leave, but she had been at Yale for the past twenty hours. This was separation anxiety like no one had ever seen it before.

"But _he's_ here," Lorelei whined, jerking her head towards me.

"Mom," Rory explained again, "He lives ten minutes away. You don't. Besides, don't you have a thing with Luke tonight?"

"Yes," Lorelei squirmed.

I sighed, slouching farther into the sofa, trying my best not to hear.

"Ok, well go. Make yourself beautiful," Rory said, overdramatically, ushering her mom out of the door.

Lorelei, mid step, stopped, "Are you implying, my dear, that I am not _always_ beautiful?"

"Mom!"

"Ok, ok, I'm going. _God,_" she rolled her eyes jokingly. "Okay, bye. Call me if you need me. Love you." She kissed Rory's forehead. "Bye Jess."

"Mother of girlfriend," I nodded. She made a small noise, like a groan, but left.

"Bye," Rory called, closing the door behind her.

"Thank God," I sighed, sauntering over to Rory. "I thought she'd never leave." I wrapped my arms around her waist, nuzzling her neck. She rubbed the back of my head, tangling her fingers in my hair.

"Hey that's my mom," she muttered.

"Huh," I said, placing little kisses down her collarbone.

"Excuse me, lovebirds, but this really isn't the best time. Don't you have something else to do? Maybe somewhere else you could go to do…this" Rory pulled away, but I didn't let go of her.

"Paris…"

"Yes, that is me," she interrupted, all the while pulling boxes in from the hall. "And who is this? Your man of the week?"

"You have men of the week?" I whispered into Rory's ear. She pulled away, following Paris.

"Paris, you remember Jess," she said, dragging her friend towards me.

"If I must."

"Ok…well," Rory stammered. "Do you need help or anything? Because we were just going to…uh," she struggled to find an excuse to leave.

"No, no. Go. You should go," I sighed, relieved, and headed towards the door. "Oh, Rory, Marty's looking for you."

oooooooo

"You bought this tree?" I laughed.

"Not exactly buying it, but, yes, I did pay money to sit under it," she laughed, leaning against me. We sat under a tree, in the shade, with my back to the tree and Rory's back to my chest.

"So…who's Marty?"

"A friend," she said.

"Figured as much."

"Rory," a man's voice called. She looked to it, jumping up.

"Marty!"

I jumped up, following Rory over to the guy. She gave him an awkward hug. She pulled away, me moving to her side.

"Paris said you were looking for me," Rory explained.

"Yeah, I…" he trailed off, eyeing me eyeing him. "Who's your friend?"

"Oh," she said, taking a step back and wrapping her arm around my waist. "This is Jess. Marty, Jess. Jess, Marty."

I stuck my hand out. "Boyfriend," I clarified. He nodded, shaking my hand.

"You what?" Rory asked.

"What?" he said, looking away from me.

"You said 'Yeah I,' and then you stopped. What were you?"

"Oh, well," he laughed, "I was just going to see if you wanted to maybe hang out later, but you probably have plans so, I'll see you in class." He turned, leaving.

"No, wait Marty," she called. He stopped, turning around. "We can all hang out: me and you and Jess and you could bring someone too. It would be fun. Come on," Rory persisted.

"Well," he paused, "I don't know if I can find a date you know, short notice."

"That's okay. Just the three of us, then. It will be just like this time that me and Jess and this other guy I used to know, his name was Dean, we went to the town fair together. It turned out, good." She paused. "Come on."

"Okay," he gave in.

"Okay, so, you want to meet up at my dorm tonight, say, sevenish?"

"Yeah okay. Bye," he nodded.

I looked at her. "Yes, didn't that time with me and you and Dean just turn out wonderful?" I scoffed.

"Jess."

"Rory."

"Marty's different from Dean. He's a really nice guy okay? Just give it a chance?" she pleaded.

I sighed.

"For me?" she asked, pouting.

"Fine," I sighed, wrapping my arms around her middle and kissing her. "You owe me."

"I do?"

"Yes," I insisted. "We're doing something dirty later."

She laughed

oooooooo

"I don't want to go," I pouted. Pulling Rory to me seductively. She wrapped her arms around me, ignoring my words. "I'm not going to have any fun."

She laughed, "Jess, you've met the guy once for a few seconds. I really think you'll like him."

She pulled away, going about with getting ready.

oooooooo

"Doorbell," Lorelei called to herself. She stood up, getting dizzy with the sudden rush of blood to her brain. She ran down the stairs, swinging open the door.

"Luke."

Luke leaned forward, kissing her, delicately; testing his still new territory. She smiled against his, putting her hands on his chest.

"Shall we?" he asked

She smirked, walking out of the door he held open for her.

"Where are we going?"

"Out," he replied.

"Aw shoot, I was afraid that that monosyllabic thing might be an epidemic. First Rory, and now you," she maimed concern, holding her hand up to his forehead.

"Stop it," he growled, pushing her hand away. She laughed.

"So…where are we going?"

Luke sighed. "I'm trying to do that romantic crap, okay? I'll never do it again, sheesh.

"Aww, how sweet," she laughed. "You're the best boyfriend in the whole wide world. Yes you are," she teased, pinching his cheek.

"Aw God," Luke muttered, swatting her hand.

oooooooo

I stood in the middle of the dance floor, shuffling my feet as Rory danced circles around me, actually, not that different from the scene in Pulp Fiction; the scene where Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace enter the dancing competition, and she wants to win.

Rory looked at me, "I do believe Marsellus Wallace, my husband, your boss, told you to take me out and do whatever I wanted. Now I want to dance, I want to win. I want that trophy, so dance good," she quoted.

"You read my mind," I smirked. She danced circles a little closer.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I mean it," I pulled her closer to me, about to meet my lips with hers.

"Rory?" It was that guy, Marty Something. She pulled away, looking for the source of the voice.

"I'll be back in two shakes of a lamb's tail," she said, going off to find him. I followed her.

"Hey, I'm going to go," he said, have this…test tomorrow and I just…" Marty trailed off.

"No," she said, touching his arm, "No, no stay. You should stay."

"No, I really should go. Bye Rory, see you in class," he looked around, noticing me for the first time. "Jess."

oooooooo

"He was acting weird tonight," Rory told me _again_, "You would like him how he is normally."

"Alright," I said, tossing my keys on the counter as we walked into my apartment.

"Jess," she said, leaning up against the counter. "I mean it."

"Okay," I nodded, pressing myself up against her.

"Ha," she gasped.

"What?" I asked, wrapping my arms around her waist.

"Someone's jealous," she grinned, framing my face with her hands.

"Please," I muttered.

"Yeah."

I laughed, kissing her hard. She moaned into my mouth as I nibbled and sucked at her neck.

"Jess…" she started to object, but trailed off. I slipped two fingers under the hem of her skirt.

She put her hands to my chest, pushing me away. "I can't. I have an early class."

"But Rory," I whined.

"Jess, I can't, it's already late," she kissed me on the cheek, turning to leave.

"Wait," I said, reaching out to touch her hand. She turned to face me; a look of worry on her face. "Stay," I whispered.

"What?" she laughed.

"Stay."

"Jess, we can't…I have to go to class..."

"No just…just stay here…with me. Sleep."

She grinned, walking over to me, pulling my arm around her shoulders. "Yeah."

I grinned, kissing her hair as we walked to the bedroom. "Yeah?"

She nodded. "Yeah," I repeated, as if trying out the word.

oooooooo

"I thought you had a class?" I asked as we lay in my bed.

"I do."

"So sleep."

"This shirt smells like you," she noted, readjusting herself so that her head rested on my chest at an angle from which she could look at my face. She was referring to my shirt, the one I had given her to sleep in.

"Rory go to sleep," I shushed.

"You must really love me," she whispered.

"Why do you say that?"

She propped herself up on her elbow so that she could look down on me. "Because Jess…I mean, you were never like this. You were the love 'em and leave 'em type."

"I left-"

"You came back, Jess. I mean, you asked me to stay here even though you knew nothing was going to happen and you moved here, to New Haven, to be close to me and you want me to go to sleep so I wont be tired tomorrow. I'm just saying: you must really love me." Exasperated with her tirade, she collapsed onto the bed, resting her chin on my chest.

Smirking, I brushed her hair out of her face, craning my neck to kiss the side of her forehead. "I do."

She smiled, brushing her lips against my jaw line. "You like having me in your bed," she teased.

I sighed, turning off the light. Rory snuggled closer to me. I wrapped my arm closer around her.

"I think the Smoky Moss really looks good," she told me.

I sighed.

"No, you were definitely right Jess. It would be weird laying here right now knowing that my boyfriend painted his apartment rose."

"Rory, go to-"

"Cant hear you," she interrupted, "I'm sleeping to loud."

oooooooo

music4mysoul - Sorry about the Lane thing. I know two girls names Laine, and they're both L-a- i-n-e Laines. I just assumed that Lane was also a L-a-i-n-e Lane. But she's not. So, the 'i' has officially been dropped. Lane it is.

AquarianGirl and everyone else-Oh, and thanks for putting up with my filler chapters.


	16. Jess said that?

Lalala Reviews! Yay!

AN: Okay, so, I've decided that I really, really hate the way the Jess' hair looks in 'This Week's Tight, Last Week's Fights' so pretend that his hair is like it was in the episode where he comes back to get his car and tells Rory that he loves her. Okay.

oooooooo

"Rory, go back to sleep," I groaned when I felt the bed moving early that morning. "What time is it?"

"Six."

"Ugh," I moaned, rolling over to look at her, "Why?"

Rory sat down on the bed next to me, resting her hand on my stomach. "Remember that early class I was telling you about?" Well, it's time to go to it now. Okay?"

I just sighed, wrapping my arms around her waist; holding on for dear life. She laughed. "I've got to go now," she said, pulling on her boots. "I have to go to my dorm to change before class." I pouted. She leant forward, kissing my forehead. "I'll meet you at my dorm for lunch, okay? We can get something to eat and I'll show you where my classes are.

"Okay," I replied, pulling myself up so that I could walk her to the door. She opened it, walking out, turning to face me. I leaned against the doorjamb.

"I love you," I said kissing her cheek.

"I love you too. Lunch, be there."

oooooooo

"Marty, wait," Rory called, running up to the taller man. "I'm really sorry about the other night."

"It's no big deal, really," he shrugged it off.

"Thank you," she said. "So…how was your summer?"

He grinned, "I met Nicole Richie, and then spent the next six weeks showering."

She laughed. "Nice."

"And yours?" Marty asked, as they found their seats in class.

"Good…good. Me and Jess went to San Francisco. My mom opened her inn. It was great."

"I'm glad."

"Me too," she laughed as the professor came in.

oooooooo

"Jess?"

"Miss me?"

"How did you know I was here?" she asked, pecking me on the lips.

"I'm a stalker," I answered, taking her bag from her.

"Thanks," she said, referring to her bag. "Or?"

"I asked Paris to show me where you were so I could surprise you."

"You asked Paris?" she asked, skeptically.

"I paid Paris," I laughed.

"You paid Paris," Rory mocked. "I was going to make myself beautiful for you," she pouted.

"You are beautiful," I assured her.

"You're just saying that because you're my boyfriend."

"I never told any of my other girlfriends they were beautiful," I said, pulling her close to me.

"Well that's just because you didn't love them," she pointed out.

"Damn straight," I shot. "So, where can I girl get a good education around here?"

"Well," she started, taking the bag from me, "First a girl wants to go to her dorm and put her stuff up and change, and then a girl wants to get a hot dog, and then a girl will find a good education."

oooooooo

"Tell me a secret."

"I really liked you waking up next to me this morning," I offered. We were walking through a veteran library on campus. We were in the back of the library, not much to look at, the light of the fluorescent lights dim, blocked by a good row or two of huge bookshelves.

"Yeah?" she asked. I nodded. "I really liked waking up next to you. I hated having to go to class."

"I hated you having to go to class."

"Really?" she asked, shining her face at me.

"Would I be saying any of this if I didn't mean it and really want you to know?" There was a lag in the conversation, in which we steered ourselves outside, and back inside, finally finding ourselves in an empty hallway.

"We should do it again sometime," I suggested. "Friday maybe?"

"Ooh, after Friday Night Dinner, you can come to Star's Hollow and have Movie Night with me and my mom and then we can go back to your apartment and hang out and watch a movie," she beamed, getting excited.

"Movie Night with your mom," I repeated skeptically.

"Please…she likes you now," Rory pleaded.

"Alright."

oooooooo

Rory and Lorelei sat in the jeep on the way to Hartford.

"Mom, the most amazing thing happened."

"Really? When?" Lorelei asked excitedly.

"Tuesday."

"Oh, do tell."

"Okay," Rory started, "Well, me and Jess were out with Marty and-"

"Really?" Lorelei laughed, "Where'd you go?"

"Dancing at some swing club," Rory answered, wanting to get on with her story.

"Really? How did Jess take to that?"

"He was a little jealous, but that's beside the point," Rory sighed, continuing on. "So Marty left because he was feeling like the Third Wheel. Then me and Jess went back to his apartment-"

"Jeez Rory!" Lorelei interrupted, again, disgusted.

"Nothing like that, God. Let me finish would you?" Lorelei nodded. "So, I was telling Jess that I thought he would like Marty except the fact that Marty had been acting a little strange that night. Then we started kissing, and things got a little heated," Lorelei flinched as Rory said that, "But, I told him that I had to go because I had an early class, which I did."

"Am I going to like how this ends?" Lorelei whined.

"I'm a hundred percent sure; now listen. So I was leaving, and he asked me to stay. I told him again that we couldn't, you know, _do,_ anything because I had a class, but he said, and I quote, 'No, just stay here with me, sleep.'"

"Jess said that?" Lorelei asked, clearly shocked. Rory nodded. "So?"

"So I stayed! And we slept, and in the morning I woke up and went to class," Rory gushed.

"And he knew nothing was going to happen _before_ he asked you to stay?" Lorelei clarified. Rory nodded again. "Wow."

"What?"

"He must really love you, kiddo," Lorelei said, looking at Rory.

"That's what I said," Rory cried.

"Yeah? And what did he say to that?"

"He said, 'I do.'"

"_Jess_ said _that?_ Jess Mariano?"

"Yes Mom," Rory answered patiently, "Jess Mariano."

"Wow."

"What?" Rory asked concerned.

"That's just…big. I mean, less than three years ago this kid was stealing beers out of my fridge and drawing chalk outlines in front of Doose's"

"That was pretty funny," Rory interjected. Lorelei stared, shocked, "But wrong, totally, totally, wrong."

"And now," Lorelei went on, "Now, this same kid has dated my daughter, ran away, came back, said he loved you, ran away, came back, ran away with you, and now he is getting you to just sleep in his apartment because he loves waking up next to you."

"Yeah," Rory interrupted, "He said that too."

"Jess told you he loves waking up next to you?" Rory nodded. "Wow."

"What?"

"That's just…not something I could ever picture Jess saying," Lorelei stumbled.

"Well maybe that's just because you've never been in a situation with him where that would be an appropriate thing to say. I mean, obviously he wouldn't be so crazy about waking up next to you."

"Hey! What's wrong with me?" Lorelei demanded.

"Um, you're his girlfriend's slightly disturbed mother," Rory suggested.

"Right, what was I thinking?"

In the next moments of silence, Rory couldn't help thinking about what her mother had said. It was kind of what she had said to Jess the other night, but different. People could see that he loved her. It wasn't just that he told her he did, because he could always be lying. It wasn't just that she believed him, because maybe she was just so infatuated with him that she made herself believe him. Other people could see it. Her mom could see how much Jess loved her. _I wonder if Luke sees it._ Could Luke see it? Luke and Jess were closer than they used to be.

But the thought that really was on Rory's mind was something Jess had said to her. _I never told any of my other girlfriends that they were beautiful. _Had he really never told any of them that they were beautiful? Of course they were, they had to be. A guy like Jess just doesn't go out with ugly girls. He's too striking. Had Jess really never told Shane that she was beautiful? Was Shane really beautiful? Maybe she wasn't, maybe Shane had just been hot, sexy. _Am I sexy? _She had to fight back a laugh, making a mental note to ask Jess later.

"Luke doesn't exactly hate waking up next to me, though," Lorelei commented, thinking aloud and breaking Rory's thought process.

"Mom. Eww."

oooooooo

"How was dinner?" Jess asked, standing up from his previous location on the porch steps where he had been waiting for the girls to return from dinner.

"It wasn't bad-" Rory began.

"What dinner were you at?" Lorelei scoffed, trudging into the house.

"The one with Grandma and Grandpa," Rory answered, following Lorelei in.

"Ah, that explains it," Lorelei sighed, in mock understanding, "I was at the one with my parents."

"Shut-up," Rory started, "Go change."

"Movie starts in ten fifteen minutes," Lorelei called running up the stairs, "Be there are get the hell out!"

oooooooo

"That movie definitely gets old after the first seven times," Rory commented as Lorelei turned off the TV.

"Nuh uh," Lorelei defied.

"Are you crazy?" Jess asked, stretching as he got up.

"Who are you talking to?" Lorelei asked.

"Right, my mistake."

"Hey, Mom, we're going to go."

"Why?" Lorelei complained, attaching herself to Rory.

"Because it's already ten 'till eleven, and it's going to take us a goof half hour to get to New Haven," Rory supplied.

"Fine," Lorelei huffed, trudging into the kitchen to get more coffee, "I'll have to call Luke to come watch another movie with me."

"Hey Mom, can I borrow a movie?" Rory called.

"Which one?"

"Um….Holy Grail," she called, looking at me. I nodded.

"Yeah okay," Lorelei said, walking back into the room, coffee and phone in tow.

"Bye Mom," Rory said, kissing her mom on the cheek.

"Bye. Bye Jess."

I could feel her gaze on my back as I took Rory's hand, leading her to the door, which I opened for her, allowing her to exit first. I looked behind me, briefly meeting Lorelei's eyes. She nodded, approvingly. I smiled.

oooooooo

"This movie is pointless," I said as we lay on the sofa watching Holy Grail. Rory laid on the sofa, sprawled out on her back and I laid next to her, tucked between her side and the back of the sofa with one arm strewn across her stomach.

"It's a Monty Python movie…Don't tell me you've never seen it before," she asked.

"No, I have. I'm just reconcuring."

"Good," she relaxed again, smiling up at me.

oooooooo

When the movie was over, she flipped off the TV, turning to look at me. "Jess?"

"Rory."

"I'm going to ask you a weird question, but I'm asking you to remember: there are no stupid questions and questions are the hunt for knowledge," she informed me, slightly nervous.

"Okay," I agreed.

She sighed, taking a deep breath. "Am I sexy?" she mumbled.

I couldn't help but laugh. "What?"

"You heard me," she said, burying her face in my chest.

"Where did this quest for knowledge come from?" I asked, stroking her hair.

"Well, I was thinking about when you told me that you never told any of your other girlfriends that they were beautiful. So I was thinking, did you really never tell Shane that she was beautiful? But then I started thinking: maybe she wasn't beautiful, maybe she was just hot, you know, sexy. Then I was wondering, am I sexy?"

"Rory-"

"You know, because the whole good girl, Mary persona does not really add up to sexy. It's never been one of my life goals to have boys look at me and say, 'oh la la' and receive cat-calls, but I was just wondering if my boyfriend thought I was sexy," she rambled on.

"God yes," I answered.

"Really?" she asked, wrinkling her nose.

"Everything about you is sexy. Your hair, your clothes, the way you talk. The way you just wrinkled your nose was sexy. The way you buried your head in my chest was sexy. You are so real, so intense, it's sexy. The way you know so many books and movies and bands is sexy. The way you look when you first wake up is sexy. Hell Rory, you eat sexy."

"Now you're just making stuff up," she laughed.

"I'm not."

"Thank you," she said into my chest.

"For what?"

"For letting me be sexy."

I pulled her away so that I could look at her face. "What does that mean?"

"I was never sexy with Dean," she said.

"Yes you were; he just didn't appreciate it. Why do you think I hated seeing you with him? Because you were this amazing, incredible, smart, sexy person and he was freeze dried toast. I hated knowing that this piece of Styrofoam could have you, but I couldn't. It killed me."

"Glad I ditched the toast?" she asked.

"Exuberant."

"And what do I have now?" she asked, cupping my face with her hands.

"A Chili Dog with everything."

She laughed.


	17. This is silly

I still can't believe you all read my stories. _My _stories. Really, it's incredible. The encouragement and feedback is just so overwhelming. Thank you. Relient K is cool.

Okay. So I'm thinking I could wrap this story up, maybe give it 25 or so chapters. Then I could write a short, maybe 4 or 5 chapter, Luke/Lorelei fic, per request. Then I could write a sequel to this. How's that sound? I just can't write two fics at one time. I'm too busy.

And I'm thinking about changing my Pen name. Nothing's for sure yet, but if it happens, I'll be sure to let you know in advance. My stories won't change names no matter what, and nothing else will change.

oooooooo

"This is silly," Rory sighed, pulling the covers over her body as she crawled into the bed next to me.

"What is?" I asked, taking the book she handed me, placing it on the table next to the bed.

"This whole thing we do. I have a dorm. It is perfectly fine."

"But you don't like it?" I asked.

"No."

"Why not?"

"You know why not," she pouted, curling herself into a ball. It had been nearly a month since our Monty Python night 'sexy talk'. Rory had been sleeping over at my apartment nearly every night since. We tried doing it at her dorm once, but Paris was there, and her other roommates. It was loud and busy and it just didn't work out. Once of twice, Rory had even come straight from classes with a change of clothes and the books she needed for the next day in her bag, skipping even going back to her dorm totally.

I leaned over her, curling myself into a ball next to her. "So what do you propose we do about it?"

She squeezed her eyes closed, ignoring my question. "We are the weirdest pair of twenty year-olds in New Haven."

I laughed, uncurling her, detaching her arms from her legs. "How so?"

"I don't know."

"So," I asked, tracing pictures on her cheek, "how come no one told me that we were switching bodies?"

"Sorry."

"It's fine. Sometimes people just need to be surly. No, I get it, I do." I paused as she turned over, staring at the ceiling. I propped myself up on one elbow, admiring her face. It wasn't quite a scowl, but not nearly a smirk. Exasperated? Maybe. I gave up my hunt. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know. It's just classes are getting more stressful and there's my dorm and here and Star's Hollow and Friday Night Dinners and…us-"

Something inside my stomach lurched, but I hid it well. "What's wrong with us?"

"Nothing, we are just fine."

"Fine?"

"Yes," she sighed, "we are _fine_," she told me, turning over to face me, once again curling herself into a ball, but this time in my arms. I gratefully swaddled her in them, relieved that she wasn't angry.

"Huh."

"Jess, are we boring?"

She remained swaddled. In fact, I swaddled her a little tighter, burying my face in her hair. "Are you bored?" I asked.

"I don't know."

Ouch. That was a nice kick in the stomach. I let go of Rory; this time I was the one turning over to stare at the ceiling. She, going into comfort mode, rolled over, propping herself on her elbow, to look at me. "I mean, not with you. I love you, Jess. It would suck ten times more to be bored with anyone else."

I grabbed her, pulling her down onto me. We lay like that for a long time. Finally I said, "I feel like I'm in one of those commercials for 'Natural Male Enhancement' and they're telling us to spice up our relationship."

She laughed for the first time all day. "Don't get any ideas. We are perfectly good at _that_," she said, blushing.

"I can be romantic," I said, out of the blue.

"I know," Rory responded, burying her face in my neck. "I can be spontaneous."

"I know. …I want to help. I love you Rory."

"I love you too Jess."

oooooooo

"Hey Jace," I called from the front desk, not looking up from the book, "I'm going to head out."

"Is there anybody here?" the elderly man asked from the back room.

"No," I replied, still not looking up, "I-" The bells rang, signifying a customer.

"Those the bells?" Jace asked.

"Yes. I got it; lunch can wait a little longer."

"I'm sorry sir," the customer giggled, "But I'm afraid I'm going to be a while." There stood Rory, beauteous smile and all, radiant like an angel. I had never scene an angel, but she looked like something I would consider an angel, minus the pizza box and orange sodas. She walked over to me, behind the counter.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but the area is for employees only," I informed her, pulling her into me.

"Yeah?" she asked, pulling my face down to meet hers. I kissed her. I sat on the stool behind the counter and she stood between my legs, with my hands on her back.

"Jesus Christ Jess! What do you think you're doing?"

We jumped apart at the screech of the old man, Rory red faced as ever. Even I was embarrassed; my boss probably didn't need to see that. "This isn't what it looks like," I assured him, "She's… she's my girlfriend."

Jace stared at Rory skeptically, as if deciding whether to believe us or not. "I'm, um, Rory," she greeted, "I, uh…go to Yale."

"Ah, so this is Yale?" he asked me. I had told him that the reason I needed the job was so that I could afford the apartment in New Haven, to be close to my girlfriend at Yale.

"Yep, she's Yale," I informed, walking over to Rory's side.

"Good choice," he said, referring to my decision to move here. During the job interview, I had told him about Rory and California and Star's Hollow.

"I know," I said, looking at Rory, who smiled politely, clearly with no idea what we were talking about.

"Well, I'm going to lunch," he said, eyeing the pizza behind us. "You can close up if you want, eat here."

"Thanks."

"You cut class?" I asked, after Jace had left.

"I told you I could be spontaneous," she said opening the box of pizza. "Are you mad about last night?"

I put down my slice, shocked. "No, why would I be?"

"I don't know. Sarcastic moody people can be annoying."

"It was fine," I answered, pulling her down to sit next to me on the floor.

"So…I guess I have to be romantic now, huh?"

She smiled.

oooooooo

I knew what I wanted to do. I had known for a few days now. The solution was painfully simple. I wondered if Rory knew what I was going to ask. She probably didn't, it would be very unlike her.

So I had made the key. I know she already had one, but it would just be weird to ask her and not give her a key. Besides, there's nothing wrong with having a spare. I had made a few other motions too. I cleared her some space on the bookshelf, I made her a spot in the closet.

And then I had to do the romantic dinner too. I didn't know how guys did this sort of thing. There were questions that guys asked their girlfriends. I knew how to do some of them, but this was something I had never done before, I didn't know what I was doing. A romantic dinner seemed to be a good way to go. Spaghetti seemed to be safe. Who doesn't love Spaghetti? Rory did; I knew that much.

"Jess!"

"In here."

"Are you making me spaghetti?" she asked, resting her chin on my shoulder.

"It's for me too."

"Aw, you're so inwardly sweet," she laughed, kissing me.

"It's almost ready."

"Okay. I'm going to go put my stuff down

oooooooo

"So, what's the occasion?" Rory asked me, playing with her food on her plate.

"You don't like having to go back and forth between here and your, dorm do you?" I asked slowly.

"No, not really, but-"

"But you like coming here…right? You're not…obligated or anything, right?"

"Jess, what are you talking about?" she asked, concern evident in her voice, taking my hand.

"And you pretty much live here anyway…" There, I said it. The word. _Live_.

Rory tensed up, noticing something behind me. I turned to see what it was. "Where are the rest of your books Jess?"

"I moved them," I sighed.

"Where?" she asked, getting up and wandering into my room.

"I need to ask you something," I called, following her.

"There not in here," she said, kneeling down to look under the bed.

"I know that," I said, trying not to show my annoyance. "I need to ask you something. Hold still."

She sat down on the floor, legs crossed, hands in lap. "Okay."

"Okay," I said, sitting down across from her. _Deep breath, in, out. Relax. In, out. _"I was thinking about what you said the other day, and it makes sense you know, about it being silly. And…and I was wondering it maybe you would want to…you know, move in here." _In, out. In, out._

"Move in with you?"

I nodded.

"That's why you moved your books, to make room for mine?"

I nodded.

"And…" she got up, opening the closet door, "the closet…"

I nodded again.

She smiled softly, gently, kneeling directly in front of me. "You did that for me?" she whispered.

I nodded, hesitantly resting my hands on her waist.

"Really?" she asked, wrapping her arms around my neck.

"Yeah," I muttered, still nervous. _Why hadn't she answered me?_

"I want to," she said, pulling herself down to be eye level with me.

"You do?"

"You didn't think I would?" she laughed.

"I…I don't know," I laughed, relieved, burying my face in her neck.

"We're going to have the ultimate book collection," she said excitedly, pulling away to examine my books again.

"And all the CD's"

oooooooo

"I've been spending a lot of time at Jess' apartment lately," Rory told her mom.

"Well, that much can be expected, he is your boyfriend."

"I mean, a lot of time Mom."

Lorelei, somewhat taken aback, had to ask, "Well, just how much time?"

"Um," Rory stalled, nervous about relaying the news to her mom, "More time than I've been spending at my dorm."

"Rory!"

"I know, but look at it from my point of view Mom-"

"I understand," Lorelei sighed, as they walked home from Luke's.

"But we were thinking about it, Mom, and we decided-"

"We?" Lorelei asked skeptically.

"He."

"He," Lorelei repeated.

"Right, so Jess was thinking about it, and he asked me if I would ever, maybe, consider moving in with him."

Lorelei kept walking ahead, as if she didn't hear a word her daughter had said. _Trying to pretend this isn't happening._

"And I said yes, that I would," Rory went on.

To which the only response she got was a deep sigh. _Trying to pretend she didn't just say that._

"Mom!" Rory yelled, stopping abruptly in the middle of the street, pulling her mom to look at her.

"What Rory! What do you want me to say? What can I say to the fact that my baby girl is moving out of her nice, safe dorm at Yale to live with her boyfriend? What am I supposed to say to that?"

Rory smiled, quite to the surprise of Lorelei. "You didn't use a modifier."

"What?"

"You didn't use a modifier, before 'boyfriend.' You didn't say 'bad boyfriend' or 'irresponsible boyfriend' or 'runaway boyfriend' or 'crappy boyfriend' or even 'unpredictable boyfriend.' You just said 'boyfriend,'" Rory smirked.

"Yeah, yeah." Lorelei sighed. "Quit smirking like that!"

"So, we want you to help me move out," Rory offered.

"What?"

"We, Jess and I, discussed it, and we decided that we want you to come help me move. That way you can see where I'll be living," Rory paused, waiting for a response. "Since you helped me move into my first place, you should help me move out of my first place."

"I don't know…"

"No! I'm moving into my first big girl apartment and, damn it, I want my Mommy there!"

"Okay, fine," Lorelei stated, worn out from the thinglet, "So…you really like this Jess guy."

"I really do, Mom. I really do."

oooooooo

Is it just me, or is Dean the epitome of dull?


	18. My and Rory's Apartment

Yeah, I actually did hear about Sin City. I didn't know she's playing a hooker though. Oh, she's also going to be in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Yeah, it looks good too. Comes out in early June.

So what do you think the average age of the fanfiction Gilmore Girls audience is?

oooooooo

"Moving day!"

Lorelei opened her eyes, carefully, slowly, so that she would be able to quickly shut them again if need be. There sat Rory, kneeling on the bed, washed, dressed, hair done, ready. "Moving day," Lorelei muttered, feigning enthusiasm.

"Okay missy. We are going to have to pep you up! Now, I picked out your clothes," Rory said, handing pushing a stack of neatly folded clothes on her mother, "and as soon as you get dressed, we can go to Luke's."

"But it's only-"

"Hey missy, don't even try complaining today, because we are going to Luke's, ordering pancakes, and then me and you and Luke are going to New Haven in Luke's truck and you are going to help me move and see where we will live." Rory stared at her mother, moving very slowly, dramatically. "Well, go."

"Blasphemy."

oooooooo

Fifteen minutes later, after much poking from Rory, the two sat at the counter. Lorelei, with her head on the counter, cradled by her arms, muttered under her breath about coffee, caffeine, pancakes, and apartments under her breath. Rory waited patiently for Luke.

"Where is Luke?" Rory asked her mom.

"No Luke…noo…no coffee."

"Mommy, get me some coffee please," Rory looked to Lorelei.

"Don't," Luke ordered, coming down the stairs.

"Where were you?" Lorelei asked, leaning forward to kiss him.

"I overslept."

"You overslept?" she asked skeptically.

"Drink your coffee Lorelei."

oooooooo

So the plans had been laid. Luke, Lorelei, and Rory were to go to New Haven in Luke's truck. Rory and I had packed all of Rory's things; they now sat in boxes around her dorm, so she had slept in Star's Hollow the night before moving day. I assumed they had already been to Yale, judging by the boxes piled into the back of the green truck. I pulled back my blinds, looking out the window, again, waiting for them to come up.

I'll admit, I cleaned up. Luke was coming; he had never seen my apartment before. Lorelei was coming; I needed to make a good impression. Rory is going to live here, _with me. _I had cleared mostly room in the bedroom and in the bookshelf and CD shelves. The bedroom.

Yes, there was the bedroom situation. I knew Rory had told Lorelei about the bedroom situation, being how the apartment only had one. She was supposedly okay with it; Rory's a big girl. Besides, it's not like everytime we are alone together we feel the biological urge to reproduce. We're not animals; we can control ourselves. That's one thing that really bothers me. Why does being in bed automatically mean sex? A bed is just a soft place to sleep and lie down, it doesn't have to mean that people will be having sex in it. It would still be awkward, me and Luke and Lorelei and Rory moving things into the bedroom that me and Rory are going to share.

Weird, but true; and I still couldn't believe it. Huh.

oooooooo

"Jess lives here?" Lorelei asked skeptically.

"Yes."

"Are you sure you don't have the wrong address?"

"Mom! No, this is Jess' apartment," Rory confirmed. "Now would you please knock on the door?"

"Why should I?"

"Because I don't have a free hand," Rory answered rationally.

"I don't want to."

"Mom, just reach out and kno-"

"Oh my God," Luke said, looking at Lorelei, reaching past her to knock on the door. "Wow, scary. Surprised I survived?"

"Your sarcasm is not appreciated mister."

oooooooo

"Luke. Lorelei," I greeted, opening the door, "Rory."

"Nice place," Luke grunted.

"You sure it's yours?" Lorelei muttered quietly. Rory, having put down her box, elbowed Lorelei in the ribs.

"Ow," Lorelei cried, rubbing her side. "So, Jess, I see you've gotten your… books all sorted. I swear, I don't think there will be another household with more books in the state of Connecticut."

I nodded, rather uncomfortably. Rory smirked. "So…boxes."

"Right," Luke said. "Boxes…"

"Wait," Lorelei interjected, "I want the tour, mister. My baby _is_ going to be living here."

"Right," I answered, walking towards the kitchen. "Well, here's the kitchen. You'll notice everything that kitchens usually have: a fridge, oven, microwave, stove-"

"Coffee machine?" Lorelei interrupted.

"Coffee Machine," I clarified, walking over to show her. I moved back into the living room. "Living room: couch, TV, DVD player, stereo, bookshelf, CD's," I went on, pointing to each object as I said it. Luke just nodded in accordingly.

"Bathroom," I said, opening the bathroom door, "Shower, sink, closet, conveniently stocked with towels and extra toilet paper, toilet."

"And, um, bedroom," I sighed, opening the bedroom door, "Just a bed, closet, dresser, lamp."

"Okay," Lorelei said, clapping her hands backing towards the door, "boxes."

oooooooo

"That was weird," Luke told Lorelei as they drove back to Star's Hollow.

"Yeah? How so?"

"They," Luke struggled for the words, "Jess and Rory!"

"Yeah I know," Lorelei admitted, "It's kind of blowing my mind too. He really has changed. I mean, just the thinks he says to her-"

"What do you mean?" Luke asked. "What does he say to her?"

"Just these incredibly true little sweet things."

"Oh," Luke responding. "There's only one bedroom."

"Yeah," Lorelei cringed, "I actually knew about that."

"It's still weird though."

"Yeah, but what can you do? They're all grown up Luke," Lorelei sighed. "My baby's twenty. Besides," she went on, "they're not rabbits."

"So," Luke said, eager for this conversation not to go on any longer. "Should we…uh, buy them something?"

"Why?"

"I don't know, sort of a…housewarming gift," Luke stammered.

"They're not married," Lorelei said.

oooooooo

The phone was ringing. I still wasn't used to that. Before, I really didn't get that many phone calls, and, when it did ring, it was almost always Rory. I think once of twice Jace had called me about working extra hours. Luke called me three times. Now, now that Rory lived here too, it was a whole different story. People would call all the time: Paris, Lorelei, Marty. About ten times I picked up the phone and didn't even know the person calling. Four times some guy called to ask Rory out. Lorelei called about every hour.

I picked it up.

"Jess?"

"Um…yeah. Luke?"

"…yeah," Luke stammered, "I wanted to tell you something I was thinking about your apartment."

"Okay," I said slowly.

"Well, I was just thinking, and I wanted to tell you that's it's nice," Luke paused, "And…you did good."

"I did?"

"Stop it," he said.

"Stop what?" I asked innocently.

"There's only one bedroom," he said slowly. I cringed.

"Yeah…I, uh…. Was that awkward for you?"

"A little," he admitted.

"Sorry."

"Yeah well," Luke hesitated. "Um, I was thinking, and I thought about maybe getting you guys a house warming gift, you know, thing, but Lorelei told me that you only do that for married people. But I thought maybe I could build something for you guys…I thought you could use a bookshelf."

I sighed. Luke wanted to build me something for my apartment, my and Rory's apartment. I remembered how Rory had been bugging me about needing another bookshelf. "Yeah, that would be okay; I mean, if you want."

"Okay."

"Honey I'm home," Rory called, closing the door behind her as she entered the apartment, dropping her bag to the floor, followed by another thud. "Dah. Look at this Jess. We need another bookshelf. We can't just leave these piles in the doorway, you know. It's dangerous, and I have to pick them up everytime I walk in."

"Do you hear her?" I asked Luke.

He chuckled, "Yeah, I do."

"Thanks Luke."

"Don't mention it kid." I hung up.

"Who was that?" Rory asked, collapsing on the couch next to me.

"Luke," I said

"And…"

"He said I did good," I admitted, leaning my head on her shoulder.

"Aww," she teased, kissing the top of my head. "Home," she repeated, analytically. "Where your heart is."

"Well at least since you moved in," I added, making he blush. I laughed as she snuggled into my side.

"So," she started, getting up, "I've decided that this is my favorite room here," she motioned to the wall in the living room with all the shelves on it, three total, yet we needed another. Two held books, and the last one split between movies ands CD's, mostly lined up on the shelved like books, but there were a few mismatched piles.

"Really?" I asked, wrapping my arms around her waist form behind, "because I'm a bid proponent of the bedroom."

"Jess!"

"What?" I asked, kissing Rory's neck.

"Movie night," she answered, pulling me towards the third shelf.

oooooooo

"I like movie night with you more than I did with my mother. Does that make me a bad person?"

"Yes," I laughed, "You are a terrible, horrible person. I don't know why I love you, you bad, bad girl. Why do you like it better?"

"Because, I could never make out with my mom."

"Good," I said, trying not to think about it.

"I like High Fidelity," Rory sighed.

"We just watched it."

"It's over," she states, staring blankly at the words rolling up the screen.

"We could watch something else."

"No," she said suddenly, "What time is it?"

"A little past 10:30…why?"

"Come with me," she said, walking into the bedroom.

"Where?"

She slid off her sweatpants, retrieved a pair of jeans, and pulled them on. "I want to show you somewhere, but we have to hurry; it closes at midnight."

"Rory?"

"Jess, this is me being spontaneous," she informed me.

"Rory?"

"What!"

"I love you."

oooooooo

"This better be good," I muttered, looking skeptically at a plain brick building with a green door. Rory opened it, pushing inside. We walked up a flight a narrow stairs, where we found a hallway. She led me to a red door, with yellow letters painted on, reading 'Vintage Store.' I gasped, looking in. It was a loft, one big, open space. The floor was wood painted red. The walls, God, the walls were covered in paintings. Two of them made a huge mural of New York City, even though the store was in New Haven, and the other two were covered with some form of pop art, almost like graffiti, but more tasteful. Rory just smirked at my disposition, leading me towards the back of the store.

"How did you find this place?" I finally muttered. Some music played low over the speakers, but I didn't recognize the band, surprisingly.

"Jamie."

"Who?" I asked, a familiar feeling of nervousness creeping into my chest. I noticed that it happened when Rory mentioned her male Yale friends. Jealousy; I'm not sure, but fear; possibly.

"Paris' ex-boyfriend," she explained. The feeling relaxed. "His sense of music was terrible, but he was book guy." We had finally stopped in front of a glass case. Rory squeezed my hand, tapping on the glass with her other hand. "Signed first editions," she whispered.

I adverted my gaze from her to the case. "Really?" She nodded. "Wow," I breathed.

"I know. Look what they've got in there," she pointed out, ticking off names, "The Fountainhead, A farewell to Arms, Tom Sawyer, Catcher in the Rye, Slaughterhouse Five, The Bell Jar. It's incredible."

"Signed first editions," I breathed. "I mean, signed books: amazing; first editions: great. Together, just wow. It would be incredible to own one," I finished, looking at Rory again.

"Yeah, don't get your hopes up, _A Farewell to Arms_ is upwards of twelve hundred."

"Too bad we're poor," I joked, pulling her into me.

"Yeah, too bad…we're poor," she agreed.

oooooooo

I don't know what that chapter was about. Let's see…it had Rory moving in, that was good, Luke and Lorelei discussing the change, that was okay I guess, then it had a purely platonic Luke and Jess moment (Yes, I know how dirty some of your minds are), so that was good. Then I guess the rest is just Rory and Jess fluff. I guess it is a bit of a step in the right direction, a very little bay step.


	19. Funky Smell Is Good

AN: Sorry you guys, I messed up. I had Lorelei say that Rory was 20. She's not sorry. She's only 19. This is going to be her birthday chapter. So she'll be turning 20. Thanks for all the reviews everyone, especially Encarta, Utopist, PookieBlue, Literaiever, and Nora17, you have just reviewed so, so much. Thanks to everyone.

oooooooo

I stood in the doorway of the bedroom dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Rory lay on the bed, still asleep. God, she was the prettiest sleeper I had ever seen in my life. She stirred, beginning to wake up. I crawled onto the bed, laying on top of her, holding myself up with my arms. I kissed her lips, and she smiled. "Happy twentieth birthday Lorelei Leigh Gilmore; I love you more than anything."

She grinned, scooting over so that I could lay down next to her. "Aw, Jess, you remembered."

"Of course I did," I assured her, wrapping my arms around her, "I actually have this whole day planned out."

"Yeah?" she smirked, yawning.

"Yeah. Today is Rory Gilmore Skip Day," I declared.

"I have to go to class."

"Oh no you don't, I took care of that for you," I said. She looked at me questioningly. I explained, "I bought a tape recorder and called Marty and Paris and, collectively, I made them agree to tape all your classes for you."

"You called Marty and Paris?"

"Yeah," I mumbled.

She took my face into her hands, kissing my cheek. "Thank you."

"Yeah, yeah, go take a shower."

While Rory was getting ready, I started to make her breakfast. I thought about what I had gotten her: the signed PJ Harvey CD. I had asked for a favor, and discovered that what they say is true: there are few connections between anyone in the world. I made a friend in the bookstore, some flake, a girl always in their looking for romance novels. I was a little distracted one day, trying to figure out what to buy for Rory. She asked me what was wrong. I figured I'd indulge her, some people might say that my and Rory's story was romantic: I told her the whole thing, all the way back to the first meeting when we were seventeen. She wanted to help, so I told her about Rory and her favorite bands, PJ Harvey, Clash, and Bjork. She said she might be able to get me a signed PJ Harvey CD, she just had to call in a favor, for the sake of romance, as she said. Apparently, her brother knew a guy who knew a guy who was dating the sister to one of PJ Harvey's assistants. Anyway, three days later, she came in with one signed copy of PJ Harvey's best CD. I also bargained with Jace to give me an early 1940's printing of Anna Karenina; I knew it was Rory's favorite book.

Then there was the book. I hadn't really done anything with it yet, just written up a, I guess you could call it, a first draft. I thought I'd show it to Rory; it'd make her happy.

"Did you make me chocolate chip pancakes?" Rory asked, from the doorway.

"Yeah," I said, pulling some whip cream out of the fridge and putting it on the table next two plates of pancakes, a chocolate coffee, and an orange juice. She kissed my cheek.

oooooooo

"Jess, this is _the_ record store!"

"It is?" I asked, innocently.

"You did it on purpose too," she accused, pulling me in.

"So what if I did?" I blushed. _It's crazy, the place is right out of High Fidelity… Let's go…Okay. _That day had been the reason we now stood here. The reason I went back to Star's Hollow. I hadn't been sure before, but now there was no question about it: Rory liked me, she was interested in me. I didn't know how, romantically or platonically, but I knew that I wanted to be with Rory Gilmore, romantically _or _platonically, preferably romantically. I knew that Washington Square Park wouldn't make that happen: I had to go back. So I did. And I got her, romantically. "It was a big day for us."

"Oh my God," Rory said, shuffling through the records. I looked over her shoulder. "Jess…do you know what this is?"

"Looks like a Go-Go's album."

"Jess!" she laughed, "Look, it's signed by Belinda. Like the one I was going to give my mom-"

"Why didn't you give it to her?" I had to know.

"I left it on the bus. But look," she went on. "Here it is. I said that I would find her another one, and here…here! I found it."

"Nice job," I congratulated, leading us towards the check out. "Maybe now you can show me your withering stare."

"I just might."

"I'm a lucky man."

"Wow, okay," she said, "We should now definitely start a conversation that we have never had before."

"I bet even if you hadn't missed your mom's graduation you would have told her you skipped school," I wondered aloud.

"I might have," she thought. "Do you know what my mom told me that day?"

"Huh?"

"She said that she thought I was falling for you. Yeah, she looked at me and said, 'Look, nobody wants to say this any less than me, but maybe you don't have a medical condition or a mental problem. Maybe, honey, you are falling for Jess.' That's what she said," Rory finished as we left the store.

"She was right."

"She was," Rory agreed, stopping me with her lips.

oooooooo

"Twenty Questions."

"Alright," I laughed, recognizing the game we would play during the hours spent in the car on the way to San Francisco. The questions usually ranged from anything light to really personal, but I played along. I answered her questions. She answered mine.

"Why did you come back to Star's Hollow the day of Sookie's wedding?" Rory asked, stretching out on the couch next to me as I wrapped my arm around her.

"Well see, you came to New York to see me," I explained, "so I knew that you missed me, that you thought we had a…thing going. I needed to be with you, to see you. Washington Square Park just couldn't compare." I paused, thinking, "My turn: why did you kiss me at Sookie's wedding?"

She leant her head against my shoulder as if considering the question. "I don't know. I…just I missed you, and I… thought that I'd never see you again. Then it was just…at Sookie's wedding and you were…there. I'm not entirely sure…I guess the same reason I went to New York."

"Which was?" I asked.

"I was falling for you." She went on, asking the next question, "When you called…on the day of my graduation, did you hear what I said?"

"When you said you loved me…yeah, I-"

"Why didn't you say anything back?"

"I," I sighed, getting up, "I was stupid. I was a stupid kid. If I wasn't stupid I would never have left in the first place. You know that right? I mean," I paused sitting back down, "just…I was standing there in Venice beach dying because I wouldn't take off my leather jacket, no matter how hot it was. I was in this stupid phone booth in this stupid, God so stupid, place that I hated, and I could just picture you at Chilton, in that big castle, in your cap and gown and it was killing me that I was there, in that stupid, stupid place and not with you at your graduation. It was killing me that it was probably killing you, and…I just didn't know what I could have said to make it better, because it was my fault that it was hurting you. I just…"

"Okay," she whispered, kissing me.

"Rory?"

"Jess?"

"Yes," I answered, getting up again.

"It's my birthday," she giggled, walking up to me.

"I got you a present," I said, walking into the bedroom. "A few actually."

"Really?" Rory giggled, flopping onto the bed, belly down feet up, "How many?"

"Two and a half," I replied, pulling them out of the closet. "Yes, I hid them," I admitted, acknowledging her questioning stare, "I know all about your little insane present addictions. Don't try to pretend you wouldn't have gone looking."

"Oh I would have," she laughed as I laid down next to her, placing two wrapped presents in front of her. "Aw, look Jess, you wrapped them and everything," she teased, pulling on a piece of ribbon and watching it bounce back into its curl.

"Open it," I nudged. She did, first opening the CD.

"PJ Harvey! I love PJ Harvey," she shouted, opening it. "Jess! It's signed!"

"It is?" I asked, looking over her shoulder in mock-surprise. "Do you like it?"

"I love it. What else did you get me?" she moved on to the next package. "I bet it's a book."

"Well you'll just have to find out."

"Anna Karenina! Ooh, it smells funky," she noticed, wrinkling her nose.

"Thanks. That was actually pretty hard to get you know," I pointed out.

"No, funky smell is good. It means it's old," she said, brushing her hand over the cover, moving to open the book. "How old is it?" she asked, looking up at me.

"Um, sixty years or so," I said, taking the book from her and turning it over. "I wanted to get you a first edition," I explained, handing it to her, "but it was written like 200 years ago, so it would cost about a thousand dollars. Sorry."

"For what? I love it." She said, kissing me again. "What else?"

"What?" I asked.

"You said two and a half," she pointed out. I sighed, rolling off the bed, walking over to the dresser and opening the top drawer.

"Okay," I said, my back to her as I fumbled with the corners of the manila folder in the drawer, "whatever you think about this, please don't mock it. It might totally suck, but I really worked hard, so don't mock me."

"Why would I mock you?" she asked, perking up.

"You'll see in a minute, but before I show you just say you wont mock it."

"You're cute when you're insecure," she teased. I didn't turn around. "Fine, I wont mock it or you."

I nodded, turning around with the folder still in my hands. I walked over and sat on the bed, tossing it to her.

"What is this?" she giggled, turning to face me as she pulled the stack of paper out of the envelope.

"You should read it because-" I began.

"You wrote it," Rory screeched, jumping off the bed. "I mean of course you did," she went on, ecstatic, "because you told me you were, that night…on the bridge, but…. now it's here. I'm holding it!" She held it up at me, "This is it?"

I nodded, head in hands, elbows resting on my knees. She gingerly set in on the dresser, carefully, and walked over to the bed, kneeling down in front of me. She took my hands, forcing me to hold my head up, "It's perfect."

"You haven't read it yet," I muttered, looking up.

She pulled me down off the bed so that I knelt down on the floor with her. She cupped my face in her hands, bringing her head dangerously close to mine. "It's the best present anyone could have ever given me."

"I love you Rory," I whispered, holding her hands.

"Why?"

I pulled her into me, holding her close to my chest. "What?"

"Why?"

I closed my eyes, thinking. "Because…you're you. You're strong and you're forceful but you're you and…"

"But I don't put out," she pouted.

"Beautiful and driven…"

"I never was as crazy as you."

"Smart, real…"

"And I could never keep up with you."

"Sweet and sexy and giving…"

"Your crazy," she said, getting up and snuggling under the covers of the bed.

"Oh yeah, look who's talking," I accused, climbing into bed next to her.

"If I could sing, I would sing to you like that guy did in 10 Things I Hate About You," I admitted.

"You saw that?" she giggled.

"Like you haven't."

"I have, its just not something I can see you seeing," she said. "You would sing to me?" I nodded. "What song?"

"I believe that lovers should be draped in flowers," I began, simply saying the words. She giggled. "Laid entwined together on a bed of clovers. Left their to sleep." She buried her head in my chest, and I smothered her with myself. "Left there to dream of their happiness."

I could feel her kiss my neck and them mutter, "I'm not going anywhere you know."

"I know, I just…"

Her head snapped up, meeting my eyes. "You what?"

"I worry about that sometimes. That some successful, smart, well off Yale guy with his nose too far up in the air will ask you out and convince you that you're better off with him than with me."

"Jess…" she began, touching a hand to my cheek. I looked away.

"Or," I went on, "while I'm waiting for you to come back from Friday night dinners, I worry that you'll be with your mom and you'll be sitting in your house laughing about how stupid I was to believe that you would ever take me back and love me again, that it was all just a façade."

"But I-"

"Love me, I know."

"And I would never, ever-" she began.

"Do that to me? I know," I finished.

"And a hoity-toity Yale guy? Like I-" she started again.

"Would ever date one. I know," I finished again, resting my chin on her shoulder.

"And I wouldn't just up and-"

"Change your mind about something as important as this just because of some guy?" I asked. Rory nodded. "I know."

"You know, this whole you finishing my sentences thing-"

"Is sickening?" I offered.

"She doesn't even hate you anymore," Rory offered.

"Who?" I asked, kissing her shoulder.

"My mom. Actually, since I told her about the first time I stayed over here, you know, to sleep, she's really taken a liking to you."

"Huh."

"She would never tell you that, of course," Rory giggled.

"I really do love you a lot, Jess. I'm here. I want to be. Really, I mean it."

"I know. I really do love you a lot too."

"Rory?" I continued.

"Yeah Jess?" she whispered, drifting off to sleep.

"Happy birthday," I answered, feeling her lips curve into a smile against my arm.


	20. Poor Pokie and the Little People Family

Are you guys teasing me with the reviews? Oh, last chapter in all my thanking, I forgot to thank AquarianGirl. Thanks! So, read on.

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"Jess?" Rory called from the bedroom, "are you packed?"

"Yes," I called back, not looking up from my copy of _Ishmael_. "You ready yet?"

"Have you seen my red sweater?" she asked, coming out of the bedroom.

"Isn't it in your suitcase?"

"No," she called back, pulling her suitcase out. "Wait...it is."

"Okay," I said, stretching as I stood up, "So…ready?"

We were going home for Christmas. For the first time in my life, I felt like everything was working for me. I had an amazing girlfriend, a home, an apartment, a job, and, suddenly, a somewhat stable family: Luke, Lorelei, me, Rory. There was always the chance that my mother would show up, decide to surprise us, but I didn't count on anything.

oooooooo

"Snow," Rory screeched, as the door swung open, dragging her suitcase behind her. I kicked the door shut behind me, dropping my suitcase.

"Rory?" Lorelei called, running down the stairs, "Rory! Rory…" Lorelei grabbed Rory, pulling her tight to her.

"Bones…cracking," Rory groaned, "organs…crushing."

"Jess wouldn't carry your suitcase for you?" she asked, squinting at me skeptically. "What kind of man have you child?"

"Hey," I defended, "I offered. She wouldn't let me."

"Oh, sorry Jessy," Lorelei laughed, turning back to Rory, now squinting at her skeptically. "What be wrong with you child?" Rory shrugged, dropping her bags in her room.

oooooooo

"Mommy, it's snoooowing!" Rory laughed, skipping next to me as we walked to the diner with Luke and Lorelei.

Lorelei turned to face Rory, contorting her face in pleasure. "Christmas is in three days." She turned to Luke. "Did you get me anything?"

"Yep," Luke sighed, as if he had already had this conversation before and was now growing tired of it. Knowing Lorelei, he probably had, and was.

Lorelei turned to Rory. "And you, daughter…did you get me a present?"

"Nope," Rory quipped, "All those years of parenting, definitely not worth a present. Labor? Forget it, you are so not worth twenty bucks." Lorelei pouted, clinging to Luke. "I only got you the best present ever!" Rory said, bouncing up and down, pulling me with her. Lorelei opened her mouth, but Rory interrupted her. "Not going to tell you what it is."

Lorelei pouted again, tugging Rory into the diner.

oooooooo

"This one's pathetic," I stated, trying to pull Rory away from the tree, standing just shorter than five feet. "Look at that big, tall one," I induced, "Just think how many presents can fit under it."

"But this one looks sad," Lorelei piped in.

"Yeah," Rory cut in, "I bet no one will buy it, and it will have to spend it's Christmas all alone."

"Yeah," Lorelei became enthusiastic. "And it will be doubly sad because not only will it have no family, but all its big, fully grown Christmas tree friends will be gone, because _they _were all adopted."

"But…" I began.

"Don't try to make sense of their madness," Luke said, leaning closer to me.

"Unless a midget family comes along looking for a tree," Lorelei pondered.

"Mom!" Rory interjected, "The correct term is Little Person. A Little Person family."

"Jeez, sorry," Lorelei defended, scrunching up her face, "I don't think that there are very many little people families in Connecticut anyway."

"Oh yeah," I started, piping up into the insanity that this conversation had been reduced to, "Little People families seem like the kind of thing that would happen in places like Texas, definitely not Connecticut."

"Taylor would have a field day," Luke muttered.

"He would probably call a town meeting about the political correctness of the whole thing," Rory said, now taking Luke's side.

"So, how long will it take me to convince you to get the nice, normal size one?" I asked, attempting to get home by midnight.

"Okay, first of all," Lorelei began forcefully, "Pokie," she looked questioningly at Rory who nodded in approval of the name. Lorelei went on, "Pokie here is a very normal tree, and he does not appreciate your put-downs mister."

"In answer to your question," Rory said, latching on to my arm, "It would take you a good, two-"

"Three," Lorelei corrected.

"Right," Rory finished, "a good two, maybe three hours to talk us out of getting Pokie."

"Pokie it is," Luke said, carrying the tree to his truck.

oooooooo

It was Christmas morning. We, the four of us, were all gathered around Pokie. It was only six, but, surprisingly, we had been woken up Lorelei's incessant knocking and chanting of the word 'Christmas.' Now Lorelei sat on the coffee table, holding Rory's present, the Go-Go record in her hand, still wrapped.

"This is your fantastic present?" Lorelei asked skeptically. "A calendar?"

"You cannot judge it," Rory said, snuggling into the blanket that was wrapped around her, "You have yet to open it."

"Thanks for the fancy Calendar," Lorelei snorted, peeling the shiny red paper back. "Oh my God… is this…"

"Yup," Rory said.

"From the day you snuck to New York?"

"No, I found a new one," Rory stated. "I said that I would find one like it and I did."

"It's signed by Belinda," Lorelei giggled, pulling Rory into a hug.

"Sure is," Rory said.

"Was it on a bus?"

"No," Rory laughed, "I bought it at a record store. Duh."

We finished opening the presents. Mine to Luke, mine to Rory, mine to Lorelei, so on, so forth. Now it was time to go eat dinner. Luke and Lorelei only had one to attend, but Rory and I had two. First stop, Hartford, and I was dreading it. I assumed Rory had talked to Lorelei last night, or Lorelei had taken it upon herself to pity me, because I had overheard the phone conversation between Lorelei and her mother.

"Mom," she had said, sighing, "Rory is bringing a, err, gentleman caller with her tomorrow-"

"Yes mom, I have met this boy…I think you haven't met him because Rory's scared to bring him over…Why? Are you joking? What happened when she brought Dean over? He was practically interrogated about his fifteen year plan…. Well, what I wanted to say was that this boy is very important to Rory, and, regardless of what previous thoughts you have of him it would be greatly appreciated if you were nice…. Yes mom, I know that you are always nice, but maybe you could just be, um…a little extra nice. Well thank you." She hung up.

"Thanks," I said, making my presence known.

"You heard?" she asked. I nodded. "Well, I don't know if it will help, but…"

oooooooo

A maid opened the door, greeting us as we walked in, taking out coats, motioning us to the living room.

"Be polite," Rory whispered into my ear as her grandpa walked in.

"Aren't I always?" I snorted. She pinched my shoulder playfully.

"Hi Grandpa, Merry Christmas," Rory greeted, hugging her grandfather.

"Ah, Merry Christmas. Rory, Lorelei, you look lovely as always." He turned to Luke, "why hello Luke, nice to see you again," he greeted, shaking Luke's hand. Finally, he turned to me, "Ah, and you must be Rory's friend…" he assumed, extending his hand.

I shook it, retreating back to wrap my arm around Rory's waist, "Yes, Jess Mariano. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Richard Gilmore," he paused, looking around, "and this is my wife, Emily." He turned to Rory's grandmother, "Emily, meet Rory's friend, Jess." She turned around, inspecting me for the first time, and her jaw dropped.

"Lorelei, can I speak to your for a moment in the kitchen," she demanded.

"But Mom…the tree and the…scones, and-" Lorelei stumbled.

"Lorelei!"

"Be right back," Lorelei mumbled in defeat, leaving the rest of us to sit in the other room.

oooooooo

"Lorelei, isn't that that horrible boy with the black eye?" Emily opened in a shushed screech.

"Mom, yes, but he's changed and he-"

"The boy you were going to keep Rory away from?"

Lorelei pushed on, ignoring her mother's latest question. "Mom, I am the last person to want to admit this, trust me, but he is different."

"Different," Emily spat, "Different? That's your explanation for this, Different? After all he's put her through, he has the audacity to come here on Christmas."

"Well, Mom, maybe he wanted to be with his family."

"Well let him spend Christmas with his mother and father," Emily said simply.

"It doesn't always work out like that mom. It's just not that simple." Lorelei sighed, "We are his family. Luke is his uncle, Rory is his girlfriend."

"Yes well, I still maintain that this Jess character shouldn't be with Rory"

"Mom, he _loves _her," Lorelei sighed.

"How do you know that?"

"And she loves him," Lorelei yelled, loud enough for everyone in the other room to hear, setting off a flush of color on Rory, and spurring Richard to awkwardly push on with the conversation.

"But how do you know that? How do you know that she loves him and he loves her?"

"Because Mom," Lorelei stated in a once again normal voice, "Rory is my best friend. I have watched her change over the last twenty years, and I have never seen her this happy. She is in love. And Jess," she went on, "I've known Jess since he was seventeen, and I'll be blunt: he's screwed up. But Mom, Jess would never come back and do any of this if he didn't honestly love her."

"I'm not happy about this," Emily said, as if admitting defeat.

"Well, no one is asking you to be. You just have to be nice, Lorelei commanded, pushing her mother back into the living room.

oooooooo

"That was-" I began on the ride back to Star's Hollow.

"Kooky," Lorelei finished.

"Eccentric," Rory offered.

"I was thinking more along the lines of Hellish," I sighed, slouching in my seat.

"Aw, poor baby," Rory commiserated, nuzzling her head into my chest.

oooooooo

"Why do you have to leave so early?" Lorelei whined, attempting to pull Rory away from the car, back into the house.

"Mom, it's two days after Christmas. Jess has work, and Paris is having some sort of nervous breakdown," Rory sighed, explaining to her mother again.

"But-"

"I have to study, Jess has work, Paris will never admit that she needs help, and, frankly, I miss my apartment!"

"Won't you miss-"

"Yes, mommy dearest," Rory laughed, hugging her mom, "I will miss Luke's Coffee and you and Luke and all of Star's Hollow, but I want to go to New Haven." Rory got in the car, shutting the door behind her.

Lorelei leaned through the open window, folding her arms so that she could peer in. "What about you Jess?"

"Tired of living under the microscope," I declared.

"But won't you miss-"

"Nope."

"Well what bout-" she started again.

"Nope," I cut her off again.

"You know mister, love of my baby's life, I'm starting to feel a little neglected over her. How can you sit there, in that car, and honestly tell me that you will not miss me? I mean, think about it from my perspective here kiddo, if you-"

"Mom!" this time it was Rory who interrupted the ceaseless rambling.

"Fine," she said, pulling the word out so that it was two or three syllables. "Bye sweets, love you," she kissed Rory's forehead, before going back inside so we could leave.

"Your grandma hates me," I muttered as Rory flipped through our CD's.

"Don't take it personally," she laughed. I nodded, kept staring straight ahead. Emily Gilmore hated me, she had always hated me. Word has it, Emily Gilmore hated everyone that attempted to date Rory. I knew I shouldt take it personally, but I couldn't help being upset that my girlfriend's family hated me. "Jess…" she started, putting her hand on my arm.

We stopped at the stoplight. "Ironic, never could quite get out of this town," I muttered, clearly despondent.

"Jess," she said again, repositioning my face to look at her. "I love you." I nodded again, looking down. "I don't care what she thinks you know," she said again. "Us Gilmores, we're of tough blood," she laughed. "She hated Luke too," Rory said. I looked up, meeting Rory's eyes. "Yeah, she doesn't think he's good enough for my mom." She laughed again, "I don't think she'll like anyone that isn't from Emily World." I smirked. The light turned green, but I didn't move; no one was behind us. "But I, I love you, a lot. I don't care how many boring guys she shoves at me. I love you; you're my chilly dog with everything."

I stopped the car, leaning against Rory until her back was pressed up against the window, my face only breaths from hers. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

And with that, the conclusion of our trip to Star's Hollow, my lips clashed with hers, to an almost violent level of fervor. Until Rory broke us up that is. "Jess," she muttered, my lips still on hers, "the light."

I sighed, pulling away, and turning back to the steering wheel. "Your too good to me," I muttered, not sure if I wanted her to hear it or not. Part of me, the part that wanted to be a good boyfriend and live up to all of Rory's expectations, wanted her to hear, to reassure me that she wasn't, but part of me, the part that was determined to do everything on my own, to be tough, independent, self-contained Jess, didn't want her to hear, because then she would know what I was thinking, making me somehow weak. It was stupid, I knew.

"I am not," she said, creating a winner out of my better side. I smiled, turning on to the interstate.


	21. Don't forget to kiss

AN: 100 reviews! Yay. Yall sincerely do rock.

Okay, so I'm trying not to make Marty look like the bad guy, because I like him, I really do, but its kind of hard to get around. Well actually, an idea just struck me. I could use that. Yeah, okay. Well, it if happens, just remember that I'm trying to avoid. I like Marty.

oooooooo

"Jess, what is this?" Rory asked, holding a half empty glass too close to my face. "It's really good," she slurred. I was forced to step back, taking the glass from Rory and grabbing her wrist, pulling her into the hall.

"You don't know what it is and you've been drinking it?" I asked, worried.

"Is that bad?" she giggled, leaning up against me, clearly drunk.

I wrapped my arm around her back, holding her up against me, bringing the glass to my lips with the other hand. I sniffed it. It smelled normal enough. "Who gave it to you?"

"Um…" she laughed, trying to push away from me, but I held on tight. I tasted it slowly, carefully. You just couldn't trust a drink that someone had given an underaged girl. After examining the bottom of the glass, tasting it, I concluded it was Vodka.

"How many have you had?" I asked.

"Um…"

"Okay, you know what," I started, putting the glass down on a nearby table, "Don't drink anything else unless I give it to you okay?"

"Jess," she yelled, "let's go home and have sex!"

I could feel myself blushing, but tried to stop it. "Rory," I whispered, "you're drunk. Come on, let's go outside." I held her to my chest tightly, walking her towards the door.

"I'm not done having fun yet," she whined, looking behind my shoulder.

"Let's go watch the fireworks," I exclaimed, as if to a child. "Fireworks are fun."

"Fireworks scare me," she pouted, finally giving up on trying to get back inside, resting her head on my shoulder.

"Well, lucky you have me here to protect you," I joked.

"Why are we at the party?" she asked again.

"It's new year's eve, Rory," I answered, laying her down on the ground, sitting down next to her.

"Jess…" she whined, clawing at my back. I turned to face her. "What time is it?"

I looked down at my watch. "11:45," I answered. "Think you can stay awake a little longer?" I asked, pulling her into a wobbly standing position.

She just shrugged, clinging her arms to my neck. I laughed, resting my hands on her waist. "Funny, I didn't exactly peg you as a party girl."

"Yeah, well," she said, heavily leaning on me again, "you do crazy things to me."

"So," I asked, "What do you plan to do in this brand new year Miss Rory Gilmore?"

"Well, Mr. Mariano, since you asked and everything…. Ooh, Jess, I love this song!"

"Nice," I hissed, letting her go.

She spun around in a slow circle, tipping over in every way, humming, "You spin me right round, baby…round. Jess?"

"Huh?" I answered, watching her, amused. I never thought I'd see the day when Rory Gilmore got full-on, unadulterated, drunken. It was actually comical.

"What time is it now?"

"Well," I started, looking down at my watch, "It's just about-"

"Five!" came a collective, muffled shriek from the building where the party was taking place.

"It's just about time," I finished. Rory suddenly got up, flinging her self in to my arms. I caught her, of course, stumbling backwards.

"Don't forget to kiss me," she stated, as if it made sense.

"Four!"

"What?" I asked.

"Three!"

"You have to kiss your girlfriend" she clarified, "for good luck, or else-"

"Two!"

"You'll have bad luck all year and everytime anything happens to you I'll feel horrible." She stood on her toes, inching her face closer to mine. I smirked. "You wouldn't want-"

"One!" Music blared. Balloons fell. Confetti showered on us, even though we were outside. All at once, from the people ambling outside around us, corks flew, popping as they escaped. Fireworks blasted in the sky. Rory pushed herself into me more, only bringing her face closer. She was scared of fireworks. The Auld Lang Syne was playing loudly, someone was drunkenly singing along. In that split second, things happening all around us, Rory suddenly looking nervous, nervous that I would forget, I didn't; I didn't forget to remember to kiss her, and I could feel her lips tighten into a smile.

But then suddenly she became heavier and her breathing deeper.

oooooooo

"Ow."

I turned around, pouring myself some orange juice, to watch Rory as she stumbled into the kitchen, collapsing into the closest chair. Her head was automatically drawn to the tabletop, on top of her folded arms. "Hangover?" I asked.

"What did I do?" she groaned.

I leaned back against the counter, smirking. "Before or after you passed out?"

"I passed out?" she questioned, her head shooting up. She immediately regretted it. "Ow," Rory muttered, collapsing back onto the tabletop again like a broken puppet.

I sat down next to her, putting a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. "I bet it's your first one too, huh." Rory just nodded. "You'll get through it. Here, take some Advil and I'll get you a Red Bull. It'll make you feel like you're awake. Then we can go get a burger."

"Crazy," she muttered, stumbling back into he bedroom.

oooooooo

"Hello?" I answered, picking up Rory's phone.

"Hello…um. Is Rory Gilmore there by any chance?" the voice asked attentively.

"This is her phone," I answered sarcastically.

"Yes, but you're not her," the voice shot back.

"Well she can't answer the phone right now," I sighed, quickly growing tired of this person.

"Is she okay?"

"She's sick…who is this?" I finally asked.

"Oh sorry, it's Marty," the voice replied, clarifying its identity.

"Look man, she's sleeping so if there is anything you wanted to tell her, which I'm assuming there was, because you called. So…"

"Right, well, I was just going to ask her something, but it can wait," he answered hesitantly.

Now I was curious. "You can tell me; I'll tell her, I swear. I'm her boyfriend."

"I'll call her later," he counter offered.

"Whatever," I said, hiding all traces of emotion from my voice.

After hanging up the phone, I retreated into the bedroom, gently laying down next to Rory. Not a minute later she stirred, blinking her eyes open. "Sorry," I muttered, staring up at the ceiling.

"What for?" she asked, snuggling into my side.

I wrapped an arm around her. "I woke you up." I paused, taking a moment to examine her face. "Feeling better?"

She simply nodded, yawning, "Did the phone just ring?"

I looked at her skeptically, shifting slightly, "What makes you think the phone just rang?"

"I thought I heard it," she explained innocently, "well?"

"Well what?"

"Well did it ring?"

"Yes," I said bluntly.

"And..." she started, but I chose not to take the hint. Finally exasperated, she sighed, "Who was it?"

"Marty. It was Marty. Okay?" I asked. "God, that guy is really starting to tick me off, you know. He won't tell me what he wants, like it's some kind of damn secret…"

"Jess, God Jess calm down, what are you talking about?"

"He calls here. He asks for you. I tell him that you aren't feeling well. You should have seen me; I was really being polite and everything. So I tell him you cant come to the phone, ask if I can take a message. You know what he says?" Rory shook her head, staring at me wide-eyed. "He says no. He says that there is no message. Why the hell can't he tell me what the message is? I mean obviously there was one, or else he wouldn't have called. What does he think, your keeping secrets from me?" I was yelling now, and I think I was scaring Rory. I didn't mean to yell. I just, I don't know, something about that Marty guy and Rory just makes my stomach hurt.

"Never," she whispered, putting a hand on my arm.

Exasperated and worn out, I lay back on the bed, covering my face with my hands. I could feel the bed shift as Rory climbed next to me. Peeking out from behind my fingers, I could see her kneeling not too far away, staring at me, concerned. "I don't know what it is about that guy Rory," I griped, "he just bothers me."

"I'll talk to him okay?" she asked, trying to comfort me with no avail.

"You don't get it Rory. God, he has a thing for you-" At this news, which she apparently found amusing, she started cracking up laughing. I stared at her, "What?"

"You sound…you sound like…Dean," she choked out.

"Oh, gee thanks, Rory. You've _really _made my day," I spat.

"No," she said, finally settling down. "See, in my sophomore year, Dean and I went to this dance at my school. Well, he met this guy, Tristan. Tristan wasn't really great with first impressions…or second one's…well, he just wasn't very nice unless he found you entertaining. Anyway, he got into a fight with Dean at the dance, and later that night, on the way home, Dean kept saying that Tristan had a thing for me."

"Tristan probably did have a thing for you," I muttered.

"How would you know?"

"Tristan," I started, "Blonde hair, kind of stood up, smokes, rich?" She nodded. "Yeah I saw him that time he came into Star's Hollow for that play you did. The way he was messing with Dean, the way he asked all those questions about you when he came in the diner, he had a thing for you."

"Oh-"

"Besides, he would be crazy not to. The point is," I finished, "that I am a guy. I can tell when a guy has a thing for a girl. See, if you asked me who Paris had a thing for, I would have no idea, but I'm guessing that you might have some insight into the topic. Guys are the same, we know when someone else has a thing for our girlfriend."

"Well, if that is true, then I'll just explain to him the situation. I'll just tell him that you are my boyfriend, and that I love you, Jess, and that I plan for you to be my boyfriend for a very long time. I'll explain to him that he is one of my best friends at Yale and that that's all I want to be," she stated, determined.

"Whatever," I said, staring away from her again.

"Jess-" she called.

"God Rory, okay," I called, getting up and walking into he kitchen.

"Okay what?" she called, following me.

"Nothing, nothing at all."

"Why are you doing this?" she yelled. "Why are you acting like this?" She gave me a moment to answer, one that I did not fulfill. "Okay, fine. You know what? I'm leaving. No, I'm just going to go somewhere else and be somewhere else because I can't be here right now because I don't want to say something that I'm going to regret okay?"

I opened my mouth to protest, but she was already out the door, letting it click closed behind her.

oooooooo

"Paris," Rory called, wandering her way through Yale, "pick up the phone. I know you're there…pick up Paris. I know you got back three days ago, and I know that anyone that you would go visit is out of town, so pick up. Fine, don't pick up, but I'm going to keep calling your cell into you do. And I know that you have it with you because you-"

"Are you stalking me?" the voice asked.

"I need to come over," Rory demanded, already on her way to dorm.

"What?" Paris demanded, "How do you know I'm not busy."

"You're not," Rory said. "I bet you are sitting at your desk studying."

Paris looked down, examining her text books and computer screen, finally pushing them away. "Fine. Where are you."

"I'll be there in a second," Rory ensured.

"Where…" Paris started, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. "You're kidding right."

"Why whatever _are_ you talking about, Paris?"

"You better hang up by the time I answer the door," Paris instructed. "I mean it…Rory?" Paris opened the door, seeing a slightly disheveled Rory standing in the doorway, donning sweatpants and a light blue tank top. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Rory defended, pushing past her friend into her old dorm room. "Why would you ask me if something is wrong?"

"Well, you show up, practically unannounced on my doorstep on New Year's Day in your pajamas at 1:30 in the afternoon. Something's wrong," Paris accused, eyeing Rory.

"Happy new Year, by the way. Nothing's wro-"

"Where's Jess?" Paris interrupted.

"Why?"

"Because he's your boyfriend and you live with him and it's New Year's Day. Where is he?" Paris asked again.

"At home," Rory informed, making herself at home on the couch. "I don't have to spend every waking moment with him. He's not my Siamese twin," Rory defended, her eyes gradually filling up with tears.

"But you usually do," Paris stated simply. "You didn't…"

"Hey, let's watch a movie, huh?" Rory suggested, "How about The Breakfast Club, can't go wrong there."

"You broke up?" Paris asked.

"God no."

"But you're still living there…I mean, right?"

"Yes, of course. I just…can't be there right now," Rory stumbled over her words, hoping that they were true. "So…can I make popcorn?"

"I'll get the movie," Paris subsided.

"So," Paris asked, right around the part where everyone is getting high in the library, "What was it about?"

"The movie…" Rory started, confused.

"No, the fight," Paris clarified.

"Oh…just Marty called, and I was sleeping, so jess picked up. Jess told him that I was sleeping and that I didn't feel well and he asked if he wanted to leave a message but Marty said no. So Jess just totally freaked out. He kept saying all this crazy stuff like that _Marty _has thing for me. Really, crazy stuff…"

"Oh," Paris sighed.

"What?"

"Nothing just..."

"What Paris," Rory exasperated, fed up, "What? I am alive you know. Everyone should know. I know what words mean. I know that 'Oh' does _not _just mean 'oh.' What did you mean?"

"It's just that…Jess, he may not be so far off," Paris answered, settling back into the sofa with a slight scowl on her face. Rory just laughed. "Really Rory, maybe his breakdown isn't entirely unjustified."

"Maybe you should go talk to him," Paris started.

"Paris!"

"Rory!"

"Later," Rory whispered, "later."

oooooooo

Rory stuck the key in the door, but I didn't hear it. She came in the bedroom, and the floorboard near the TV creaked, like it always does, but I didn't hear that either. I was in the bedroom, with the lights off, listening to I Hate Myself loud, really loud. So I didn't notice when the door pushed open just enough to let my girlfriend squeeze through, but I did notice when the bed shifted as she climbed in next to me. I did notice when she suspended herself over my shoulder, peering at my face, and I did notice her sniffle when she noticed that I was asleep, or at least pretending to be. So she just got up, turned off the music, and crawled back into bed, laying herself on her side, facing my back, and so I sighed quietly, turning myself over slowly, to see her squeezing her eyes closed, crying.

"Rory," I whispered, laying my hand on the side of her face. She just sniffled, blinking her eyes open. "Are…are you alright?"

"I talked to Paris," she murmured, "Yeah."

"Oh."

"She said that you might have been right," Rory whispered, closing her eyes. "It turns out, you might actually have some supporters with this thing."

"Oh yeah?" I asked.

"Yeah, and I was thinking that maybe I should apologize."

"Don't," I said, kissing her forehead.

"But I totally denied it and, I didn't believe you, and…"

"You didn't do anything. You didn't ask him to like you. You didn't ask him to call here. You didn't ask him not to tell me. I'm your boyfriend, you would never do anything to hurt me."

"Never," Rory clarified.

I sighed, relieved, as Rory pushed herself closer to me. "We had out first major fight," I noted.

"We didn't do so bad," Rory commented. "I came back and all, and look how happy we are now."

"Yeah, not so bad."


	22. I Want To Ride The Dryer

Oh don't you worry you little Lit lovers; I have got something up my sleeve. I'm just a little apprehensive about posting it so soon, it's written and everything. I know that in chapter two, when Rory and Jess officially got back together, some of you thought it was just a tad too soon, so I'm trying to put a good amount of space before the big thing. I'm hoping to get it in somewhere in the area of the next three chapters, tops. Don't give up on me.

oooooooo

As I was walking up the stairs of the apartment building, the elevator had broken, I heard music. It was loud, really loud. I figured that one of our neighbors was having a party because as soon as I stepped out of the stairwell and into the hall on the sixth floor, the music intensified. It wasn't until my key was in the door, which now stood partially opened, that I realized that the music was coming from my apartment. As Chuck Barry's "You never Can Tell" blared, I searched through the apartment for Rory. I finally found her, in the kitchen, making frozen lemonade drink in the blender, while dancing around, moving about. I watched her for a while, looking ridiculous and beautiful and carefree and intense all at the same time.

"What are we celebrating?" I asked, getting some glasses shapes like cactuses down from the cabinets.

"Hey," Rory answered cheerfully, leaning over and pecking me on the lips. "We are celebrating the end of my second year of college," she announced, handing me a glass.

"Huh, congratulations."

"Thank you," she nodded.

"So, what's with the music?" I asked, following Rory into the living room, which she had hastily decorated.

"I'm feeling very Chuck Barry-ish today," I slowly nodded, "After my last exam this morning I convinced Paris to watch Pulp Fiction with me."

"Oh. How did she like it?" I inquired.

"Yeah, not so much," she answered, turning down the music a notch. "Guess what I did?"

"Fell in love with the eloquence of Ernest?" I guessed.

"Nope," Rory giggled, putting her hands on my shoulders. "I finished the book."

"Shock-"

"No Jess, _the _book," Rory corrected.

A wave or realization engulfed me. I opened my mouth to say something, but it never came out. Rory laughed. Suddenly my mouth went dry. "Oh," I muttered, leaning back on the couch. "What did…um…"

"Look at you," she teased, sitting down on the coffee table facing me.

"You said you wouldn't mock me," I muttered.

"…and I'm not going to," she guaranteed, shaking her head back and forth so that her hair whipped around her face. "It is a satire…about life in a small town as told from the point of view of a hardcore city outsider… That's you, you're the hardcore city outsider."

"Stop," I grumbled.

"No, no It was good. I liked it. It was really funny, really dry too." I smirked. She went on, "Were we really that crazy?"

"You'd be surprised if we had been in different positions," I answered.

"I'm not in it," she said.

I turned to look at her, shocked. "Yes you are, you and your mom, both of you-"

"No, I mean, I'm not in it…we're not in it."

"I didn't want it to be like that," I explained. "I mean, a romance novel. That's not what I wanted to write. I didn't want people sobbing over you and Dean or rooting for me the whole time or hating me when I left."

She nodded. "I liked how you embellished Lane."

"I thought you would."

oooooooo

"Jess wake up," Rory stated, squirming underneath my arm.

"It's still dark. What did we agree?" I mumbled.

"Keep sleeping until after the sun is out, but this is special…Jeessssss…"

I rolled over so that my head was inches away from hers on the pillow, only to be met with her eyes staring back at mine, wide open. "Yes Rory?"

"It's been one year," she squealed. And then, whispering, "Happy Anniversary."

I smirked, awkwardly bending to kiss Rory's forehead and pull her close to me. "Happy anniversary," I whispered.

"Your still here," she murmured drowsily.

"I told you I would be," I assured her shoulder. "Did you doubt me?"

"I didn't know what to think," she answered. "Thank you for still being here."

"I wouldn't be anywhere else."

"Let's go to Star's Hollow."

"What?" I asked, contorting my face in shock.

Rory got up and began to pull clothes out of the closet, the hamper, her drawers. "I have been out of school for a little over a week and I miss my mommy, Jess. Take me to Star's Hollow?"

By now I had jumped out of bed and stumbled over to where Rory stood. I took hold of her hands, stopping her destruction of order. "We can, today in fact, but not right now, okay?"

"But we need to do laundry; did you know that three AM is the best time to do laundry?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Think about it: you get to pick any machine you want and they have all been disinfected."

"Oh wow," I commented, "It's Christmas in July all over again." Rory looked at me pleadingly. I yawned. "Fine, but you owe me a heavily caffeinated drink."

"Thank you, get dressed," Rory called, collecting her clothes from the bathroom. She came back in, catching me watching her. "Get your clothes!"

oooooooo

"I want to ride the dryer," Rory declared, distantly as she watched our laundry spin around.

"Words I never thought I'd hear out of your mouth for six hundred," I replied.

"Doesn't that look like fun," she asked in all seriousness.

"Oh yeah…I want to be a sock when I grow up." Rory sighed. Venturing over to the dryer and putting her hand on it. "I figure whenever I get bored I can just sneak into the reds, stir up a little trouble," I went on. Rory was now climbing on top of the dryer, sitting cross-legged so that she bounced up and down. "Then I can just sneak back into the bleach load, do it again and again so that…what are you doing?"

"Riding the dryer," Rory answered.

"Stop saying that, you're making it sound hot," I teased, walking over to her. "Your incredible."

"Please," she snorted, "I'm riding the dryer. I'm a regular super hero."

"Yeah, but who else would ride the dryer?" I ventured, attempting to kiss her, but failing miserably due to the vibrations of the dryer.

Rory laughed, gripping my shoulders. "I Love you Jess."

"Me too, always," I risked. "Always."

oooooooo

"Where are we staying?" I asked Rory as we stood on Lorelei's porch.

"Probably above the diner," I looked at her questioningly. "Luke moved in with mom," she explained.

"Oh," I nodded.

"Which is good, right?" she went on, turning to face me. "We'll get our own place to stay when we visit."

"We will," I agreed.

"Rory?" Lorelei screeched. "What are you doing out here?"

"Happy summer Mom," Rory yelled, falling into her mother's open arms. Lorelei dragged Rory away into the house, leaving me on the front porch with all our bags. Rory helplessly looked back at me, sympathetic. "Mom, wait, aren't you forgetting something?" Lorelei stopped, spinning around, staring at Rory blankly. Rory sighed, "Mom, Jess, my-"

"Boyfriend, blah, blah, blah," Lorelei interrupted. "Hi Jess, I'm Lorelei, Rory's mother," I rolled my eyes, "Anyway, I am just about the coolest mom ever, so you two can stay above the diner. See you later now, me and Rory have to do something. It is me time now, you have her all the time. Scoot."

"Mom, ow... stop pushing me. Ow…you pinched me," Rory whined, staring back at me.

"Did not," Lorelei overstated.

"You so did, right there on the arm," Rory displayed her arm. "Bye Jess."

"God, you are so clingy," Lorelei complained, getting Rory into the house with a final shove.

I inwardly winced. The more I thought about it, the worse it sounded. _Rory's boyfriend. _It sounded childish, juvenile. I knew that we weren't exactly the most mature people, but we were adults. I couldn't help but feel unimportant at the term.

oooooooo

"Mom," Rory asked warily as she watched coffee drip into a pot, "You and Luke are getting pretty serious, huh?"

"I guess, hun," Lorelei replied as she heated up French Bread Pizza. "Why?"

"Well, I was just thinking," Rory began, sitting down at the kitchen table, "if you and Luke, you know, hypothetically of course, got married are something…and then there would always be me and Jess…would that be gross?"

Lorelei sighed, sitting next to Rory at the table. "Not really…I mean, at least I don't think so. Luke and Jess don't even have the same last name, so it wouldn't even sound gross. And you and Luke are not related, so not really…" Lorelei trailed off, as if pondering her statement. "Why," she asked suspiciously, "have you and Jess talked about anything…serious, anything, more?" Rory just stared at her mother, taking a while to understand. Lorelei expanded, "Maybe one day getting ma-married, having a family?"

"Oh, no, no no no," Rory stammered, shaking her head. "Well, I mean…it's been a year mom."

Lorelei nodded. "It has."

"And he's still here, you know? He's really doing better, talking about things, being really nice to people. He has a job, we have a routine, a…a…"

"You have the beginning of a life together, Ror," Lorelei finished quietly.

Rory sighed, picking at her food. "It's scary, mom."

Lorelei laughed, squeezing her daughter's shoulders, "Aw, honey, you're happy. That's all that matters. Part of love is being scared, talking about it, and laughing about it after the fact."

"I am happy," Rory beamed. "Thank you, mom." Lorelei smiles encouragingly.

oooooooo

"Can I put this upstairs?" I asked, making Luke aware of my presence.

He looked up from his notepad, "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Nice to see you too Uncle Luke," I replied, drooling sarcasm. "Lorelei told us we were staying upstairs."

"No, I just mean I thought you'd be over there at the house," Luke explained.

I rubbed the back of my neck, sitting at the counter. "I think I was kind of, uh, kicked out."

He raised his eyebrows in amusement. "You too, eh?"

"Stop it," I said, getting back up. "So is the door locked?"

"Nah, go ahead," he muttered.

"So you and Lorelei," I teased, "getting pretty serious?"

He just shrugged. "Oh yeah, well look who it's coming from, huh? You and Rory? Who'd of thought you'd still be here, what's it been now, a year?"

"Gee thanks," I said acerbically, feigning offense. "Yeah, a little over a year now."

"Impressive," Luke acknowledged, leaning on the counter. "So…"

"So what?"

"So…never mind," he stopped.

"What?"

"Nothing," he evaded.

"Whatever, I'm going upstairs," I hurriedly marched upstairs.

oooooooo

"Jess," Rory called, running into the apartment. "Jess….Jess? Are you here? Jesssssss!"

"I'm here, over here," I called from my old room. I was flipping through some CD's, trying to make the perfect mix for… "Are you alright? You sound a little hysterical."

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she laughed, walking in as she straightened a shirt out that she had just pulled over her head. "Hey, are you doing anything tonight? Do you think I can leave you on your own, me and mom and Lane have this thing…" She sat behind me, resting her chin on my shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, go on," I dismissed. "I've got to go pick something up in Hartford anyway, and I've got to call Jace, tell him I wont be in for a few days…"

"Well now," she kissed me, "don't have too much fun, I'll feel like you don't need me anymore."

"Oh, I'll always need you," I assured her enthusiastically. I kissed her again.

"I've got to go, Mom and Lane are waiting downstairs," she got up standing in the doorway. She posed, jutting her hip put and pushing her hands against the doorway. She cocked her head to one side, looking at me. "Do I look cool?"

"Oh yeah, like a regular gutter punk," I teased. She smirked. "Now go on, go hang out with your mom." She still stared at me. "Well, get. Really, don't worry about me, I need to go to Hartford anyway. I'll be fine."

"Okay," she conceded. "Well, if you change your mind Zach is around, so you could probably talk to him about…something. Oh, you could check out that music store, Lane says it's really nice. " She picked up her purse and slung it around her shoulder. "Bye, love you."

oooooooo

I'll be honest. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't even know where to go. I didn't even have anyone to ask. I just winged it. I went to Hartford, drove downtown awhile. Then when I saw a shop that I thought looked respectable, I went in, looked around. I picked out what I thought would be good. I mean, I couldn't afford anything really nice and big like it should have been, but I knew that Rory wouldn't mind. It was nice looking though, that's what it was. So I bought it. At first it killed me, just how much the thing was. I had never bought anything that expensive before, I mean, besides my car. I knew that if anything was worth it, though, this was it, definitely. I was scared a little too. See, when I'm nervous about something, I tend to listen to The Pixies a lot. Aside from them being this incredible, incredible band from which all later punk rock bands borrow from, they have this soothing quality to me. It's as if the lyrics are so filled with hysteria and nonsense that it just calms me down. Drug music without the drugs. The day I left Star's Hollow, on the bus after Rory got off, I listened to The Pixies pretty much the first few hours. The night that I came back, when I went to Yale to ask Rory to go away with me, I was listening to Pixies really loudly in the car before. So of course, in the car after I had bought it, driving back to Star's Hollow that night, I was listening to The Pixies.

I had decided to do it, I don't know when. Sometime between when Lorelei had mocked me and when Rory came up. I guess thoughts had been stewing. I mean, me and Rory had been living together for a few months now. We'd known each other for four years. We had actually dated for almost two of them. It was right. I knew it was. It was a little spontaneous, and that's the only thing that bothered me. It didn't matter, I knew it was what I wanted. As soon as I opened up the box and saw it there, I knew. I knew.

oooooooo

SO! I'm think one maybe two more chapters with this here, then on to a sequel! I'm excited. I mean, finishing a whole fanfic! That's a big deal! Oh, and check out my stuff at I think it's okay. If you want to, go to my fanfic author profile and check out my homepage. Nice, nice.


	23. God Be Thanked

AN: I love The Pixies. Must I say, undoubtedly, beyond any question in the world, that they are my favorite band. Don't get me wrong, I'm still rather young, but that's never going to change, never; it's a part of me. It makes me what I am. I mean it, I'm going to be on my damn deathbed, demanding to hear "Monkey Gone to Heaven" before I go. I will, I mean it.

Well, beyond my little ode to The Pixies, there, I do have some relevant news. Okay folks, this is it. This is the last chapter. If I'm feeling up to it, I might squeeze a short epilogue, but it'll be short. Short. Anyway, the one thing that I can guarantee you is a sequel, no doubt.

See, over the past few months, I've really gotten to love this writing business. It makes me happy, really it does. I know, I know, I am really fooling myself into thinking I'm important because I'm totally ripping off other people's characters. I tried writing my own stuff, but it didn't seem to burn, so I'm afraid I've given up on that bit for a while. But the sequel should be up pretty soon. Before school gets out probably. Wow, I really hope this is good.

Well, on with it, then.

oooooooo

I sat, sulking in the apartment above the diner. I knew this wasn't the time for it, and I knew everything would be better off if I would buck up and go on, but I couldn't. See, I had made up my mind. I wanted Rory, forever. This whole business we had going on, the whole thing, was just a little silly. She was right about that much. In this business though, there was a whole aspect that I had overlooked, one that I had never been particularly good at. Yes, buying her basket at the bidding was good, and some of the other stuff too, but nothing was really good, nothing was great. I had never been romantic. Yes, I read Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, but I still didn't have an idea about what they wanted.

So I sat, at the kitchen table, hands elbows on the table, hands cradling my head, like a baby; a baby thinking of ways to propose to his girlfriend. Yeah…wow.

"Good morning," Rory chanted perkily as she pranced out of my room, all ready dressed and her hair neatly combed back. "Let's go downstairs! You don't even realize how much you miss Luke's coffee."

"Hey," I mumbled, slowly pushing away the list in front of me, pulling it into my lap. "You go on, I'm going to get dressed."

"I'll wait," she offered, taking a seat across from me. Shit.

"No go on," I pushed her. She just shook her head, gently folding her hands on the table. "Hey, I think I just heard your mom."

"What?"

"Why don't you go downstairs and check it out," I suggested. I kicked the list to the floor, and jumped up, practically running around the table and pulling Rory out of her chair. I pushed her towards the door. "You go on," I told her. "I know you don't like to wait for coffee. I'll be down in a bit. Say hi to Lane…alright. Bye now." The door shut behind her, and I leaned against, sighing. If this was going to be done right, it had to be done soon.

I changed my shirt and scrambled downstairs, but Rory and Lorelei had already gone.

"Looking for Rory?" Luke asked. I feebly nodded. "They left, her and Lorelei. They went shopping Hartford," he explained.

I sat down, grabbed a muffin, and pulled the list out of my pocket, going over it again. It was a short list, and so far it just had the necessities. You know, I had the ring, the dinner, the music, the place. Nothing much, nothing big. "What's wrong with you today?" Luke asked, peering at me suspiciously over my shoulder. I quickly folded the paper in half, jamming it back into my pocket.

"Nothing," I snapped. "I'm just…. So, is that music store any good? I was thinking about checking it out today."

"I've, uh, never been in," Luke answered warily. "You should ask Lane or Zach, they go in a lot. Listen, uh, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. I have to go, though. See you later, thanks," I said, abruptly getting up and walking out. "I've got some things to do, stuff to get. See you later."

Luke nodded oddly at me, as if he knew there was something up. He probably did. Hell, everyone probably did.

oooooooo

"Hey," I said, tugging on Rory's arm.

She laughed, "Jess…"

"Put something pretty on," I instructed.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, holding onto me. "Where are we going?"

"Just put something pretty on. Trust me, by the end of the night you'll be glad you did," I told her.

"You're all dressed up," she noticed, stepping back to examine me.

"I have to o get something, alright?" I asked. She nodded. "I'll be back in about a half an hour to pick you up," I explained. "Is that okay?" She nodded, and I left.

It had been two days since the crazy morning, me with all my lists. After tonight, if everything went well…I could tell Rory about the lists, and she would laugh. I had it all planned out, see. I had already dealt with everyone so that the bridge was ours for the night. I had laid out the food, but kept it covered. I set up the music, all ready for us. I went out, got the flowers, and everything. I double checked everything again, making sure it was all ready.

Was I ready?

I had never been surer of anything, anything. Were we old enough, I don't know. Would it work, I didn't know. Would she even say yes, I didn't know. What I did know was that I loved her, I needed her, I didn't want to be without her ever again. So I was going to do something about it. This had to be, it was going to work out. I knew it…I knew it?

Hesitantly, nervous, red and yellow tulips in tow, I trudged up the stairs of the apartment. The diner was closed, I had begged and pleaded Luke. I didn't tell him why, but he finally agreed. He'll know soon enough. I knocked quietly. "Rory…"

"Your back," she said, opening the door.

"Uh…yeah. Come on," I said, grabbing her hand. "So, what'd you do with your mom today?"

"Oh, nothing," she answered, "just went shopping. We didn't really buy anything much, just…. Where are we going?"

"Nowhere really," I simply stated. "We're not even leaving Star's Hollow. Hold on." I moved in front of Rory, covering her eyes while leading her to the bridge.

"Jess…" she laughed. Right at the part that connects to the ground, where it just starts going out to the water, Stepped beside her, letting go of her eyes, and taking her hand.

"What is this?" Rory asked, seeing what I had set up there. It was a dinner, romantic, yet still us. A black and white checked blanket sat under two bowls of Macaroni and Cheese with peach soda. I had also bought a candle, one that smelt like peach, and it was lit off to the side. Rory walked onto the bridge, kneeling beside everything. I brought along a CD player with a mix tape I had made. It had what I considered to be the more subtle, less whiny romantic songs- Personal Jesus by Marilyn Manson, I Want to be your Boyfriend by The Ramones, Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen, A Girl Like You by Edwin Collins, All I Want by Toad the Wet Sprocket, But I do by Clarence Henry, If You Leave by OMD, Your Song by Elton John, This Magic Moment by Jay and the Americans, and, of course, The Guns of Brixton by the Clash mixed in with a few others.

"I just wanted to show you that I…I really, really love you Rory."

She smirked, "'God be thanked, the meanest of his creatures boasts two souls-sides, one to face the world with, one to show a woman when he loves her.'"  
Rory laughed, kissing me on the cheek. "I really, really love you too Jess, like crazy," she said, pulling me down to sit next to her on the bridge.

oooooooo

After we ate, we found ourselves in Luke's. Luke wasn't there though; he was out with Lorelei, they would be back late. The place was closed. "Here, sit here," I said, pulling down a chair for Rory at one of the tables. I was nervous: my hands were sweaty, my legs were jittery, there was a lump in the back of my throat, and wanted to start crying. "Rory?" I asked sitting down in a chair caddy-cornered to her side of the table.

"Yeah Jess?"

"I…um," I stammered, determined to this right way; the way I had a practiced over and over, "I love you…a lot." She opened her mouth to say something, but I stopped her, "No, just let me finish." Rory nodded, so I went on. "Like I was saying: I love you a lot. I love to make you laugh, and I love to make you blush. I love waking up next to you in the morning. I hate to catch you looking at me, because it makes my stomach hurt so much. I live for the moments when you touch me: when you grab my hand, when you put your head on my chest, when you kiss me. God, I love your kisses. And I love to kiss you and touch you and make love to you. I fall in love with you all over again everytime I watch you pig out on movie nights. I love to watch you wake up, and I love to watch you dance, especially when you think I'm not watching. I wake up every morning, and thank God that you're still here, that you still love me, and I fall asleep every night, with my head next to yours, thinking how lucky I am to have you. I love that your favorite foods are cheeseburgers and fries, that your favorite drink is coffee, that your favorite book is _Anna Karenina_. Most of all, I love that you love me, and I want to keep loving all those things about you. I want to be able to kiss you and touch you and make love to you for the rest of my life." I paused, sliding out of my chair and getting down on both knees in front of Rory. I pulled the ring out of my pocket, holding it between my thumb and forefinger. "Rory Gilmore, will you let me watch you wake up every morning as long as forever? Will you let me be your husband? Rory Gilmore, will you marry me?"

Rory slid off her chair, kneeling in front of me, so that we were now eye-to-eye. _Say yes. Say yes._

"Jess…" she started, tears openly slipping down her cheeks. "Jess Mariano, I love you… a lot. I love the way you look when you first get out of the shower. I love the way you kiss me whenever you don't want to talk about something. It's crazy that you moved to New Haven for me, and I love you for it. I love your smirk and your crazy hair, and I hate when you stare at me and call me beautiful, because it hurts like crazy, but I love you so much for it. I love that your out of your mind. I love the person you make me into, the way you make me act so crazy. But most of all, I love that you love me, like no one ever has before, and I don't know what I would do if you ever stopped." I reached up to brush them away, but she caught my hand, holding it against her chest. "'I am like a falling star who has finally found her place next to another in a lovely constellation, where we will sparkle in the heavens forever.' Nothing could make me happier…I will."

Trembling, I slipped the ring on her finger as I kissed away her tears. "Don't cry."

"How can I not cry?" she asked, grinning crazily, as she wept, "I'm going to be Lorelei Leigh Mariano."

"That's good?" I asked, smiling at the name.

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

oooooooo

Three hours later, Luke had walked in on them curled up in each others arms in Jess' bed. They were sleeping fully dressed, thank God, but Luke had seen it. Luke had seen the ring. He didn't know if it meant what he thought it meant, because Jess didn't tell him anything about it, but, if it did mean what he thought it might mean, Luke thought it appropriate to give them some privacy.

He scrawled out a quick note, left it somewhere Jess would see.

_Walked in, saw it, didn't know what to make out, so I'm at Lorelei's. I won't say anything._ _–Luke._

Lorelei answered the door on the first knock. "Luke? What's wrong?"

"It's Rory and Jess…they're over there, at the apartment, being obnoxious with their music." Okay, so he hadn't told her. He couldn't tell her. It might not mean anything, and, if it was what Luke thought it was, it wasn't his news to tell.

"Oh yeah, they can be pretty rambunctious" she said, opening the door wider. "Are you okay? You look sort of jumpy."

"No, I'm fine," he answered, but she looked at him questioningly, "When I got back to the apartment they just gave me a bit of a scare, that's all."

oooooooo

"Wake up Miss Rory Mariano to-be," I whispered in Rory's ear. She smiled, gripping on to my chest securely.

"Good morning, my husband, wow, to-be," she laughed.

"Husband," I said, sitting next to her, "Wife. Wow." I paused. "Are we going to be bad at this?" I asked.

"Why would you say that?" she asked, worried.

"Because we never had any married couples to raise us. I mean, my mom and dad- don't make me laugh. Your mom and dad never got married. Luke, never married. I've never met my grandparents, and your grandparents are having trouble."

"Jess," she said, pulling me into her arms, "No, no don't say that. There are people. We have…Babette and Morey." I looked at her skeptically. "Besides, we don't even need anyone. Luke never knew anyone who opened a diner, and look how well he is doing." I just sighed. "I don't care! We'll do whatever it takes. I'll stand in the middle of Grand Central Station and ask people who look like they have happy marriages and good families for advice. Because I love you too damn much to let this fall apart Jess!"

"Grand Central huh?"

"Wherever you think is best," she laughed. "We have to tell my mom."

"I know."

"Today," she clarified. "When my mom first started dating Max, she didn't tell me, but I found out when he showed up at our door to take her out. I felt betrayed. It was like…all my life, my mom was my best friend, and we would tell each other everything first. Then this guy comes running along and it was just like Rory Who. It sucked. We have to tell her. Now."

"After Breakfast?"

"Fine," she sighed, still grinning crazily. I got up, looking inside the suitcase to get a clean shirt, but there was note scrawled out sitting on top of my clothes.

"Oh no," I sighed, sitting back down next to Rory. "'Walked in, saw it, didn't know what to make out,'" I read. Rory just stared at me. " 'I'm at Lorelei's. I won't say anything. Luke,'" I finished.

"He knows?" she asked, panicked.

"Probably; he said he didn't know what to make out, but he's not stupid," I paused, pulling Rory up with me. "He said he wouldn't tell her," I assured. We started getting dressed. Rory danced around the apartment, pulling on her clothes, chanting "We're getting married," over and over. I beamed but told her to chant a little quieter. Finally we got downstairs. Rory wore her ring; we didn't think anyone would notice.

"Mom," Rory yelped upon seeing her mom sitting at the counter when we first got downstairs. It was loud. In fact, almost everyone in the diner turned to look at us. Rory blushed, staying silent just long enough for everyone to look away.

"Hey hun," Lorelei greeted, patting the stool next to her. Rory bounced over, taking a sip of her mom's coffee. "So, what did you two do last night?" she asked casually, not knowing exactly what she was asking. Rory looked at me, and I nodded ever so slightly. We had agreed that Rory should tell her mom alone. I didn't think hat she was going to get upset, Rory just wanted to tell her mom; so I agreed.

"Can we go home in a minute?" Rory asked Lorelei.

"Sure…why?" Lorelei ventured.

"I'll tell you," Rory said, teasingly. "You ready?" Lorelei nodded, taking a list sip of her coffee. The two meandered towards the door.

oooooooo

It wasn't long after that that the phone rang. I was upstairs with the TV on. I had tried reading, but I couldn't focus. So I turned on the TV, but it wasn't holding my attention either. I was pretty much staring at the wall opposite me. That's when the phone rang, just when my thoughts came around to how stupid I was being.

"Hello?"

"What are you doing over there?" It was Lorelei, and it was loud. I pulled the headset away, holding it not so far from my face.

"What are you-"

"Don't play dumb with me! I know all about what's happening! Rory told me everything. My question is, what are you doing over there?" she was practically breaking down into hysteria, and I heard Rory giggling in the background. "I'm going to count to ten," here I heard Rory yelling something, Lorelei yelling something back, and a few crashes. Then Lorelei came back to the phone. "One hundred. I'm going to count to One Hundred. You better be here by then."

oooooooo

When I got to the house, Lorelei and Rory were there, of course. So was Lane. Some music was on, presumably a mix that Lane had brought over. Something frozen was being drunken it Holiday Inn glasses. I opened the door quietly, walking into the house. The first thing that hit me was Rory flying at me. I caught her, of course, and she held on to me tightly. We walked back into the living room. The next thing that happened, was Lorelei came up and gave me a hug, full fledged and all. That was when I knew everything was good. It was all going to work out.

oooooooo

That night, as we lay on Rory's bed- we had decided to stay at Lorelei's that night- it was something wonderful. It was never like me to be optimistic, but this new part of life was exciting. Nothing had happened yet, and everything was still the same. I knew that, but I couldn't help feeling good. It was as if everything- everything we had been through since the first night I stole Howl- was worth it, just for this. It was as if everything- everything since that terrible night at Kyle's party- had been set out for us to arrive at this moment. It was as if everything- everything I had felt since my mom told me she was kicking me out- was so that I could lay here with Rory and know that she was going to be my wife and I was going to be her husband. At the heart of it all, I felt that everything she had ever said, everything Rory had ever tried to convince me, was right, and that she _had _changed me. I smirked, rested my chin on the top of Rory's head, and closed my eyes at the thought.

oooooooo

AN: How did yall like it? I'm not so sure. Anyway, there will be a short epilogue hooked onto the end of this story. When I say short, I mean short. One, maybe two pages. Three at the most. Anyway, I am guaranteeing yall a sequel. I might take a break in between, I might now. I'm not sure; it depends on how busy it is.

The first quote said by Rory is by Robert Browning, from _One Word More. _The second quote, also said by Rory, is by Amy Tan. I couldn't bring myself to make Jess quote anything. I was looking, believe me, I was, but I couldn't find anything that I could honestly believe Jess would say. I thought I was all ready being a little too mushy with the whole thing, very un-Jess.


	24. Epilouge!

AN: Epilogue. This is really exciting, you know. I mean, the last, almost, three months, and here it is, all done and complete. Great. So, here is the final installment of Second Chance. Enjoy. Check up later, in a week or so, defiantly less than two weeks, for my new story. I'm not sure what I'll call it yet, but it';; be by me.

By the way, I'm KICKING myself that I spelled LorelAi wrong the whole time. I guess I figured the problem, and it has been lamely attributed to my Spell Check. Here, go to word and type in Lorelai, L-o-r-e-l-a-i. What does it give you? It says that it's spelled wrong and that it should be changed to Lorelai. I'm so stupid. Tell me earlier next time please. Cool, now that I'm done ranting about my idioticness.

oooooooo

"You ready?" I asked Rory. She sat on the bed in our apartment, her back to the wall with her legs pulled up to her chest. She slowly nodded. I sat down next to her, mimicking her position. "Scared?"

She looked at me for a moment. It was an intense look of fear, love, and devotion; all mixed with excitement and anxiety. She nodded again, collapsing into me, and I graciously held her.

We had decided to wait until after Rory graduated to get married. It was a long wait, but we made it. We even saved up some money. The wedding was to be in Star's Hollow, of course, in the town square. Sookie is catering, Lorelai is to be the Matron- yes, matron, Luke finally did it- of honor, and Luke the best man. The town is going to close down that day. Rory wanted Lane to be a Bride's maid so much that I had to find another escort for her. I picked Zach; he and I had spent a few days together in Star's Hollow waiting for Rory and Lane, he wasn't bad company. The date was in two days, we were leaving for Star's Hollow tonight, and Rory was nervous.

We packed our bags and loaded the car. Everything was all ready in Star's Hollow, the wedding attire and such. All we really had packed was things to wear the two days before. Our other bags were at Lorelai's house.

As soon as we arrived in the town, we were both escorted to our different houses, where we would be kept apart until the wedding.

oooooooo

That's where I am now. I guess you could say that the point of the view of this whole thing. I'm getting married in three hours. Luke is gone helping making sure everything is set up right, so I'm alone in the apartment above the diner. The music is on, something I found in one of Rory's bags, something by Conor Oberst. I've been sitting here for about a half an hour now, and I just can't think right. All I can think is what will happen at five, just two hours and fifty-four minutes from now. Me and Rory will be married. In the end, we opted for a summer wedding. We decided that neither of us want to wait anymore, she graduated in May, now it's early August.

In two hours and forty six minutes, I'm going to tell Rory how much I love her, in front of everyone, and listen as she tells me, then we are going to promise that we'll never go anywhere, no matter what, then we'll kiss, and then our lives will never be the same again. Then there will be a party, with a big tall white cake, and some food, and everyone that matters. Rory convinced me to invite my dad, and he said he would come, but so far I haven't seen him. My mom was invited too, Rory didn't even have to force me to do that. Rory's dad is in town also, detracted from Sherri of course. It seems they've split up, pity. Rory's grandparents eventually made up, and they're here too. Richard actually took a liking to me, and, in the end, he was proud of us. He offered to walk Rory down the aisle, in case Christopher didn't show, but he's here, in Star's Hollow, so he won't need to. Emily hates me less, but she never really liked me. I guess first impressions are important. Yes, Luke and Lorelai got married, and they're both happier than I've ever seen them. Marty is supposed to be coming too. He found himself a girlfriend, a girl he met at a book signing as Rory tells me. She was right in the end, Rory was. I do like Marty, he's a nice guy, and he's funny. Paris found herself a boyfriend, a chemistry major. They're supposed to come too.

I guess that's it, our story. I don't know if we all deserve it, I still don't think I do, but Rory tells me otherwise. I'm really happy. So is she. It seems everyone is living their dream lately, even Taylor. It appears that he hired some kid to stand outside his candy shop dressed as an ice cream cone. Go figure. Anyway, I though I just saw Mrs. Kim storming after Zach, already dressed in his tux. I'll tell you, I don't think I'll ever get used to this small town life….

oooooooo

Don't forget to keep your heads up for a sequel by me!

Oh, and by the way, yall have just been the best audience, really. I especially want to thank Pookieblue, Aquariangirl, literaiever, Utopist, and Music4my soul. Yall really reviewed a lot. Everyone else too, thank you, thank you. I never would have imagined getting this many reviews. I'm just a dumb girl with a stupid story, but yall really inspired me. Thank you.


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